


The Chalice of Quintessence

by keithpoenewt



Series: Voltron Harry Potter Hogwarts AU [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Eventual Relationships, F/M, Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Harry Potter AU, Hogwarts AU, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Honestly I love them, Human Shay (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Mild Language, One-Sided Attraction, Original Character(s), Orphan Keith (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, does this even apply here anymore?, for now, friendship goals tbh, give him a medal you cowards, he had a rough childhood, hehe here's what you've been waiting for folks, his mom is alive but oh well, it's a long ride from here folks, she'd fight anyone tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 44,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithpoenewt/pseuds/keithpoenewt
Summary: Our favorite paladins have reached their fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but evil still lurks around every corner. Instead of the annual Quidditch Cup between the four houses at Hogwarts, a new competition will take place instead this year: The Triwizard Cup - it's a good thing no one under the age of 17 can enter!Nothing could go wrong, right?





	1. Morning at the McClains

**Author's Note:**

> ANNOUNCEMENT:  
> Edits to book 3 are COMPLETE! New pictures have been added along with some subtle new plot points so I suggest you all go check that out!
> 
> I also made some minor edits to books 1 and 2 as well - only one picture in book 1 was changed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith starts his morning off with a creepy dream that leaves him with a big headache, but he has no idea what it means. The fact that Lance suddenly decided to flaunt around without a shirt on doesn't help Keith's crisis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note from Artist:  
> Hey guys, hope this cover makes up for the pretty cruddy one I made for book 3.

Cover art below!  


_ _

_ A house sits isolated on a hilltop in a town called Little Hangleton. Thunder booms in the sky while the occasional lightning strikes in the sky illuminate the area around for a fleeting moment. Fifty years ago, its inhabitants, the Dorra family, were killed in a most mysterious way which left no signs of bodily harm - almost as if they were frightened to death. The villagers instantly suspected Frank Boyce, the Dorra’s stiff and misanthropic gardener. To this day, the villagers still mistrust him and the village boys often bother him. _

_ One night, fifty years later, as the elderly Frank refills his hot water bottle to ease the soreness of his joints, he spots a bright light coming from inside the Dorra house. He immediately knows that the village boys have set a fire. Acting quickly, he limps over to the house and lets himself inside with his spare key. He makes his way up the dusty staircase and stands in the hallway next to a room where he overhears a conversation between two voices: one with a high-pitched controlling tone and another with a nervous/submissive tone. _

_ Frank overhears the controlling one reveal his name to be Lord Zarkon and say, “No, Migale, I must wait for the Quidditch World Cup to end before capturing Keith Kogane.” _

_ “But sir, perhaps using the other boy, Lance McClain, will be easier. He’s easily manipulated!” Migale exclaims. _

_ “No! Keith must be the first!” Zarkon exclaims. _

_ “Sorry, My Lord,” Migale replies sheepishly. “I did do what you asked! I brought the woman, Bertha Jorkins!” _

_ “Mmm, yes you did. Her information proved quite useful,” Zarkon agrees. “It’s a shame we had to kill her to prevent her from talking.” _

_ Frank’s eyes widen in fear at this news and becomes even more frightened when a thick, twelve-foot long snake slithers past him into the room. It begins hissing back and forth with Lord Zarkon. _

_ “Ah, Frank Boyce! Do come in!” Zarkon exclaims. _

_ Frank timidly walks into the room and Zarkon kills him in a single flash of green light. _

_ At this moment, miles away, the boy named Keith Kogane wakes in the night. _

 

* * *

 

 

Keith gasps and jolts up in his bed with a shooting pain in his forehead. He looks around the dark room in alarm, scrambling out of bed. Keith stops in his footsteps when he sees Lance lying in his own bed across the room from Keith’s, sound asleep. He takes a deep breath and sighs of relief. It was only a nightmare. Though, the last time Keith’s head hurt him was when Lord Zarkon was nearby.

Lord Zarkon was the leader of the dark side of wizardry, the murderer of Keith’s father and Lance’s mother, and who helped to have Krolia, Keith’s mother, framed for their murders along with many more. After murdering Keith’s father, Lord Zarkon turned on Keith with the same curse, but the spell didn’t work and it left him very week. Years later when he killed Lance’s mother with the same curse, he turned on Lance to do the same, but it rebounded and completely stripped himself of his powers.

Keith paces the room, debating on what to do. He can’t tell Pidge or Hunk because they would find it alarming and want him to inform Shiro nor can he tell Lance because he might think it was a false alarm since he didn’t wake up. He finally decides on writing a letter to his mother, Krolia Kogane, whose escape Keith assisted in last year.

She had been wrongly imprisoned for killing thirteen people and turning her own husband and best friend (Rosa McClain) over to Zarkon. Keith and his friends discovered that this work had actually been done by Narti Ames, who is also known as Migale, which made Krolia innocent.

Keith quickly writes his letter then shoves it under his pillow, not wanting to risk waking Lance up by opening Blue’s cage. He starts walking to the door, but trips over something soft and lands on the ground, his elbow taking most of the blow. “Ow…” he mutters to himself. Keith pulls his wand out of his pocket and whispers the spell  _ Lumos _ , causing the tip of his wand to glow. He sees Red sitting there, giving him an evil glare. “Oh, don’t give me that. You’re the one who tripped me.” Keith sticks his tongue out at her then walks out into the hallway. “Nox.” His wand stops glowing.

He pauses before walking down the stairs. How the hell did Lance not wake up? Mm, whatever - not his problem. He heads downstairs for breakfast and is immediately greeted by Carlos chasing Marco down the hallway.

“MORNING KEITH!” Marco shouts.

“MOVE!” Marco yells.

Keith quickly dashes to the side so he isn’t trampled then goes into the kitchen where he sees Isa making pancakes and Luis reading the  _ Daily Prophet _ at the counter. He opens his mouth to greet them, but Lucy runs into the room with a letter in her hand, smiling widely. “Guess what?! Ryland sent over the tickets so we can go to the Quidditch World Cup! He left two extra tickets, one for Tasha and one for Keith!”

“Wonderful!” Luis exclaims. “When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow at five? I think that’s what the letter said,” she replies, handing the letter off to Luis.

Lance eventually joins them downstairs, not wearing a shirt. Keith feels his cheeks heating up so he turns away quickly.

Jeez, does he have to flaunt himself around like that? It’s bad enough Keith has to watch him on the Quidditch pitch, but this is just torture. Keith tries to calm down his racing heart as he walks over to Isa. “Morning, Isa. Do you need any help?”

“Oh! Hello, Keith!” she greets. “Yes, actually.” She begins telling him something to do while Lucy fills Lance in on what Ryland sent.

Keith quickly does what Isa asked him to do then sneaks back upstairs while she sets the table to use Blue to send his letter to Krolia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to point out that it was my idea to have her draw Lance shirtless.
> 
> So what can I say except...YOU'RE WELCOME!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com/)


	2. The Quidditch World Cup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the Quidditch World Cup is here! The McClains and Keith go in a frenzy trying to get ready. Lance is zero help in keeping Keith calm during all of this excitement ( _why won't he wear a fricken shirt??_ ).
> 
> Will Bulgaria or Ireland win?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehehehehehehehehehe (you'll know why I'm laughing once you read)
> 
> Enjoy~

Early the next morning, Keith wakes up when someone gently shakes his arm. He opens his eyes to see Isa’s smiling face. “Good morning, Keith! We leave in forty-five minutes!” She stands up and walks over to Lance’s bed then proceeds to yank off Lance’s blankets. “Up and at ‘em, Lance!”

Lance groans loudly and sits up, stretching. Keith hears his spine crack in several different spots and Lance sighs in content. He makes the mistake of looking over to see Lance shirtless yet again.  _ Why doesn’t he wear a fricken shirt to bed?! _ Keith looks away, biting his cheeks as if that’ll help him not blush like a fool. As much as he loves staying at the McClain house…Lance isn’t helping his big-ass crush.

Yeah, that’s right. Keith’s got this enormous crush on Lance that started during their second year at Hogwarts. Most of his friends have yet to figure it out, but Pidge knows all about it. She figured it out after she saw Keith’s jealousy get out of hand last year after Gryffindor played Ravenclaw. Lance told them Hannah had to yell at him because he wasn’t hitting the Bludgers hard enough at a girl named Nyma Valentina - the stupid Ravenclaw girl that Lance fancies. Keith’s pissed about it, but Pidge says to wait it out to see if Lance will come around.

Keith’s losing patience to see how long that’ll take.

_ THUD _

Keith whirls around to see Lance on the floor beside his bed, scrambling to look for something beneath it. “Lance, what the hell are you doing?” Keith wonders.

“I gotta find my jersey!” Lance exclaims. “My Volkov jersey!”

Keith raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “Don’t you still have to pack?”

Lance stops what he’s doing and turns to look at Keith, also sporting an unamused expression. “Are you really gonna lecture me when you’re not packed either? I could do this all day, Kogane. I have five siblings AND I’m the youngest.”

“Yeah? And what does that prove?” Keith wonders.

Lance stands up and walks right up to Keith, their noses inches apart. He pokes Keith’s chest. “It means I never lose.” Lance smirks but doesn’t seem to notice Keith’s reddening cheeks.

After a couple more seconds, Keith looks away, not wanting to have a heart attack. “Whatever.” He grabs a bag out from underneath his bed and begins to put clothes in it.

“That’s what I thought,” Lance says smugly from behind Keith.

Keith ignores him and takes off his own shirt and puts on the #8 Lynch Ireland jersey the Holts got for him one Christmas and puts some different pants on before packing the rest of the clothes and necessities he’ll need. Once he finishes, he turns to ask Lance if he’s ready, but stops when he sees Lance wearing his #7 Volkov Bulgarian jersey. The maroon red of the Bulgarian jersey almost matches the Gryffindor red perfectly, thus making Lance look even better in it. Keith looks down at his own jersey and notes that the white definitely makes him look paler - he prefers the dark green of the Slytherin jersey over this.

“Keith? You good?” Lance asks, waving his hand in front of Keith’s face.

“What? Oh, yeah! Let’s head downstairs,” Keith says, following Lance out of his room after he grabs his bag. He waves goodbye to Red and Blue and hurries down the stairs with Lance.

Downstairs they find the McClains and Tasha waiting with their bags packed - all of them sporting Bulgarian Quidditch gear making Keith feel like the odd one out. The doorbell rings and Lucy quickly runs to open it, smiling when she sees Ryland standing there. “Hi,” she says with a giggle.

Ryland smiles at her. “Well, hello there.” He gives her a quick kiss on the lips before stepping inside, followed by his sister, Reyna, and his father, Maxwell. Keith sighs in relief when he sees all of them wearing Ireland apparel - now he doesn’t have to be the odd one out!

“Dude, you picked a bad team,” Carlos comments, patting Ryland on the shoulder.

“Nah, Ireland will totally win,” Ryland replies, smiling at Carlos.

Reyna smiles at Keith and hugs him before Maxwell claps his hands together. “Well, are we ready to head out?”

“Yes! Lead the way,” Luis says, gesturing towards the door.

Everyone shuffles out and Isa locks the door once everyone is out. They begin walking around the house and start trekking through the tall grass that leads to a large hill called Stoatshead Hill. Lance walks between Keith and Carlos, chatting about parts of the game he’s excited for. Keith puts his opinion in every once in a while, but it’s mainly Lance and Carlos talking about the Bulgarian Seeker, Antok Hamamoto.

Suddenly, it dawns on Keith that they’re not heading to the train station. “Wait, why are we walking this way when the train station is the other way?” he wonders.

“It would be impossible to fit thousands of wizards onto the Hogwarts express or in Diagon Alley to transport them to the Quidditch World Cup so we have to use alternate means of getting there,” Luis explains. “One of the ways is a portkey, which is where we’re heading right now.”

They reach the top of the hill and find Rolo Dawson, a handsome Hogwarts student and the Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and his father, Alfred Dawson standing by an old boot. “Ah! My, my, what a surprise! Hello Maxwell, Luis.” He shakes both of their hands then turns to Keith. “Well, if it isn’t Keith Kogane, the youngest, most promising Seeker Hogwarts has seen ever!”

“Sir, I-” Keith starts.

“And to think my son beat him last year!” Alfred exclaims.

Keith frowns and crosses his arms. Did he really need to bring that up? Keith nearly died during that game!  _ Stupid Dementors… _

Luis clears his throat. “Anyway! Have you found the portkey, Alfred?”

“Ah! Yes! It’s this old boot right here!” Alfred exclaims, gesturing to the old, tattered brown boot at their feet.

Once Isa’s watch turns to 5:00 AM, everyone puts their hand on it and it begins to spin them blindly through the air. Keith feels himself getting sucked towards the boot by his abdomen, nearly getting whiplash. He grabs on to the closest thing near him which so happens to be Lance’s hand, but he could feel Lance reaching for him as well. They hold on tightly to each other until they land shakily at the campground. Only Alfred, Luis, Maxwell, Isa, and Rolo are able to land on their feet while Ryland, Reyna, Keith, Lance, Tasha, and the rest of Lance’s siblings roll ungracefully onto the ground.

Luis, Maxwell, and Isa help everyone up while Rolo and Alfred say goodbye and head off to where their tent is. Luis pays the worker at the front of the camp some Muggle currency that Isa helped count out before they make their way to the tents.

Keith looks around in awe at all the tents wizards have pitched in attempt to act like Muggles. Most of them seem pretty tiny while others are bigger and have chimneys sticking out of them. A part of Keith tells him that that’s impossible, but then he remembers they’re magical tents so just about anything is possible.

Eventually they find the Garetts and Holts tents and Luis and Maxwell set up their tents nearby. Keith notes that Hunk’s family has Bulgarian stuff on theirs while Pidge’s family has Irish. Hunk and Pidge each walk out of their tents when they hear commotion and smile widely when they see their friends. Hunk has on Zograf’s #1 Bulgarian jersey while Pidge sports Moran’s #2 Irish jersey.

Pidge runs and nearly barrels Keith over in a hug while Hunk hugs Lance, lifting him up in the air. “Ah! How was summer at the McClains?” Pidge wonders, pulling away to look at Keith. She wiggles her eyebrows and smirks.

Keith glares at her and looks over at Lance and Hunk to see if they heard, but they’re deep in their own conversation. “It was fine, Pidge. Nothing happened that you need to be concerned about,” he replies.

  


Keith shushes her as Hunk and Lance join them. Hunk hugs Keith while Lance hugs Pidge. “How’ve you been, Keith? It sucks I wasn’t able to see you most of the summer,” Hunk says.

“I mean you don’t always get to travel to the United States every day.” Keith smiles. “It’s good to see you though, Hunk.”

“Should we go look around? We can get buckets of water while we do that,” Pidge says, grabbing a stack of four buckets, handing one to each of her friends while keeping one for herself.

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Lance exclaims, leading the way.

Keith follows behind him, admiring the different tents wizards have set up. He watches some wizard children play around with each other on some toy broomsticks, laughing and tossing around a ball. He sees some Salem Witches’ Institute banners on a couple tents next to each other. Then they enter Irish territory. Keith smiles widely when he sees tents covered in shamrocks and large flags waving around. Wizards walk around with each other all wearing different Irish attire, some even have their faces painted green and white.

Lance fake vomits when they arrive at the taps and Keith slaps him lightly. Once the buckets are filled, they continue down the path to loop around and they finally walk through the Bulgarian tents where many posters of Antok Hamamoto can be seen.

Pidge rolls her eyes. “I don’t understand the fuss about Antok. Keith’s a much better Seeker than he’ll ever be.”

Lance gasps. “ _ EXCUSE ME _ ?! I’m sorry, Pidge, but I think you’re mistaken. Sure, Keith’s a good Seeker, but Antok is a professional!”

“Hey!” Keith exclaims defensively.

Lance puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s the truth! Keith, buddy, you know I love you, but when it comes to friendship or the Bulgarian Quidditch team, I gotta pick Bulgaria.”

Keith huffs and rolls his eyes as they get back to their tents. Hunk and Pidge go inside their own tents to get ready for the game leaving Lance and Keith to head inside the McClain tent. Keith is skeptical at first since it looks tiny from the outside, but, once he steps inside, his eyes widen in awe when it expands, showing four different rooms within the tent. Inside they find Luis trying to start a fire in the fireplace, Marco and Lucy reading on the couch in the main room, Isa making some food in the kitchen, and hears Carlos and Ryland in the room on the opposite side of the kitchen. Hannah and Tasha are nowhere in sight.

He concludes they must be somewhere making out.

Lance and Keith turn when they hear someone else enter their tent. Luis walks up to him and shakes his hand. “Ah! Vince, it’s nice to see you.” He turns to everyone else. “Kids! Come on in here!”

Isa peeks out from inside the kitchen area, Marco and Lucy set down their books, and Carlos and Ryland walk out of the other room. “I’d like you all to meet Vince Offer. He’s the head of magical games and sports.”

Lance leans in to whisper to Keith. “He’s also a retired Beater.” Keith nods at him then listens to what Vince has to say.

“Today’s supposed to be a great game! I guarantee Bulgaria will win this one!” Vince exclaims enthusiastically.

Ryland and Carlos exchange a smirk then turn to Vince. “Care to wager a little money?” Carlos asks innocently.

Vince narrows his eyes. “What were you thinking?”

“We’d like to bet that Ireland will win the game, but Antok will still catch the Snitch,” Ryland challenges. He holds up two bags of money.

Vince’s eyes widen at the sacks. “You’ve got yourself a deal!” He shakes both of their hands before leaving.

Luis gets all of the McClain kids, Tasha, and Keith ready to head out and they meet the McGivneys, Garetts, and Holts outside before they head inside the large arena. Lance, Keith, Pidge, and Hunk stop at a wizard vendor to each purchase a pair of omnioculars before hurrying to catch up with their families. As they sit down, Keith notices a small pink mouse-eared creature sitting along and recognizes her instantly as a house mouse-elf. He walks over to her and looks at her. “Hello, are you lost?” Keith asks as Lance, Hunk, and Pidge join him.

She shakes her head no. “No, Chuchule is saving a seat for her master.” She narrows her eyes at Keith then gasps. “You are Keith Kogane! Chuchule knows what you did for Chulatt two years ago. House mice-elves are supposed to do as they’re told without payment, but Chulatt has been requesting payment! It’s not right!”

Keith raises an eyebrow at her. “Chuchule, Chulatt’s old masters treated her terribly. I did her a favor.”

Chuchule shakes her head no. “Chuchule could never imagine betraying her master like that!” She turns away from Keith and huffs in annoyance.

Keith turns to his friends and shrugs. They make their way back over to their seats but stop when they see the Morrisons and Mathesis walking in their direction. Keith glares at Damien when they make eye contact then glares at his hand which is intertwined with Bethany’s.

_ I’m gonna be sick _ , Keith thinks to himself.

“Look who it is! The pathetic ones of each house of Hogwarts,” Damien comments with a smirk.

“Why are you even here? You guys aren’t even good at Quidditch!” Bethany exclaims.

Keith raises an eyebrow at her. “Yet here I am four years later still on the team and you have yet to make it…what does that say about you?”

Bethany huffs and crosses her arms. “Damien! Don’t let him talk about me like that!”

Damien simply glares at Keith but doesn’t do anything to contradict his statement. He knows Keith’s a fantastic Quidditch player and Keith knows Damien is as well. When it comes to playing on Slytherin’s team, the two boys have a silent agreement to get along because they both have the same mindset of wanting to win.

“Come on, just ignore him,” Damien finally says, dragging her in the direction of their parents.

Once they’re gone, Lance fake gags. “Ew! Those two together?! I think I’m going to be sick.”

“You said it,” Pidge agrees. “I hate them even more.”

The kids take their seats as Vince Offer begins commentating on the game. Keith looks around in awe at the immense size of the arena. The Quidditch pitch looks puny compared to the number of seats that surround it. At Hogwarts, the stands only go up ten feet or so because people outside the school don’t usually come, but this arena is meant for thousands and thousands of wizards.

How are the players not nervous? Keith would be scared out of his mind!

“Welcome, everyone to the 422nd Quidditch World Cup between Bulgaria and Ireland! I’m your commentator, Vince Offer for today and I couldn’t ask for a better crowd! First, let’s bring out the Bulgarian Veelas!” Vince exclaims.

A hush washes over the crowd as the lights dim and twenty or so beautiful, platinum-haired dancing sirens begin to enchant the audience males. Keith finds himself being drawn in by their show, but shakes his head and looks away, not caring for it at all. He looks over at Lance and isn’t surprised to see him completely enthralled by them.

Keith raises his elbow to elbow him but stops when a few green fireworks go off and the Irish leprechauns begin forming shapes in the sky. The crowd breaks out of its trance and begins cheering for them. The leprechauns make a large dancing leprechaun in the sky before flying above the crowd and dropping gold pieces.

Once finished, both teams fly out onto the pitch and Keith leans forward in his seat, smiling widely. He admires the Irish jerseys billowing out behind the players as they soar around the pitch on their brooms. Keith longs to hop back on his broom and play Quidditch again, but he knows he has to wait for November to come around.

Keith breaks out of his thoughts when the crowd (well, mainly Lance) starts screaming when Antok Hamamoto takes a lap around the pitch, holding his fist high in the air. Keith raises an eyebrow and turns to look at Lance. He seems enthralled by Antok for whatever reason. “I still don’t understand the big fuss about him!” Keith shouts to Lance.

“What?!” Lance exclaims. “Keith, dude, you’ll see in a minute why everyone’s screaming about him. You may be a good Seeker, but Antok is a great one.” He smiles widely then looks back at the game.

Keith’s chest tightens slightly at that comment.

_ Ouch _ .

Lance didn’t need to be  _ that _ blunt about it. At least Pidge thinks Keith’s better than that jokester. Speaking of Pidge - she taps Keith shoulder. “Keith, don’t listen to Lance,” she says in his ear. “He’s just obsessed with Antok’s way of playing and flying.”

“I don’t get it! He isn’t doing anything special!” Keith exclaims.

Pidge nods. “Yeah, I know. For you, it’s a heart attack every time you switch directions in the air. I always think you’re gonna fall off, but you never do unless some Dementors come and-” She stops when she sees Keith’s annoyed expression. “I see you’re still upset about that…alrighty then!” She turns back to the game.

Keith chuckles to himself and looks back at the pitch. His eyes widen in shock when he notices the score is already 40-10, Ireland leading. He only looked away for like a minute!

One of the Irish Beaters knocks the Bludger at the Bulgarian player who has the Quaffle. From the power he used to hit it and by the speed it’s flying through the air at, Keith expects the Bludger to smash through the player’s arm, but the Bulgarian easily dodges it, allowing his own Beater to knock it at another player. Eventually Keith loses sight of the Bludger, it becoming a brown blur in the air.

Ireland intercepts the pass and scores again and again, quickly racking up the points. Keith reaches in his pocket for his omnioculars so he can watch the moves in slow motion. He looks at each player, trying to find Lynch in the air. Keith finally spots him up higher in the sky, looking around the area for any signs of the Snitch - a tactic Keith himself loves to use.

The mascots also grow more involved in the game - the Leprechauns being gleeful whereas the Veelas get angrier and angrier. They get so mad to the point where they burst out of their beautiful skins and reveal their true demonic bird heads. Suddenly Keith feels the need to run far away from them, not wanting them to rip his head off.

Lance breaks Keith out of his thoughts by smacking his arm repeatedly and pointing at Antok as he flies high in the air then dives down sharply towards the ground, chasing something in the air. “Keith! Antok found the Snitch!” Lance exclaims.

Lynch quickly follows after Antok in the sky, trailing close behind. Once Antok is close enough to the ground, he suddenly pulls up on his broom so he doesn’t collide with the ground. Lynch doesn’t act fast enough and he crashes into the ground below.

The crowd goes nuts as Lance yells loudly and claps. “DID YOU SEE THAT?! ANTOK JUST DID THE WRONSKI FEINT!”

“So what?! Keith did it when he barely even started playing as a Seeker!” Pidge retorts, clearly angry Ireland’s Seeker is out of the game.

Lance opens his mouth to retort, but he shrugs in agreement. Keith looks back at the game, but the scoreboard still shows Ireland ahead with an astounding 160-point lead over Bulgaria. Even if Antok catches the Snitch, Ireland will still-

The ref suddenly blows the whistle as Antok holds something gold up in the air:  _ The Golden Snitch _ .

Pidge screams from next to Keith as do the rest of the Irish fans. Even with the 150 points the Snitch gave them, Bulgaria still lost to Ireland with a score of 160 to an astounding score of 170.

“THEY WON! IRELAND WON THE QUIDDITCH CUP!” Pidge shrieks, jumping into Keith’s arms for a hug.

Keith laughs and holds her tightly. “YEAH!” He looks over his shoulder and sees Lance still standing there with his jaw dropped down, clearly in shock. “How does it feel to lose, Lance?! Oh wait, you have three years of it under your belt!” Keith smirks at Lance’s glare.

“Oh, I’m gonna make you eat those words, Kogane!” Lance exclaims.

Pidge jumps out of Keith’s arms and side steps so Keith can sprint away from Lance. Keith narrowly avoids running into Ryland and Carlos as Vince Offer begrudgingly hands over his lost money. He weaves his way through the crowd, dodging the angry Bulgarian fans and high fiving the Irish fans if they offer him one. He finds an opening in the mob of people and stops there to catch his breath. Keith looks around, trying to find Lance, but doesn’t see him anywhere. Where could-

“SURPRISE ATTACK!”

Keith whirls around as Lance comes charging at him from behind, nearly falling over as Lance wraps his arms tightly around him. “Ready to face your punishment, Kogane?” Lance asks, whispering into Keith’s ear.

A shiver runs down Keith’s spine when he feels Lance’s breath on his neck. “I doubt you could - HA!” Keith laughs loudly as Lance starts tickling him. “LANCE-” Tears start streaming down Keith’s cheeks as Lance continues to tickle him.

Pidge and Hunk break through the crowd and spot them, running over to join them. “Oh my god! Lance! You’re gonna kill him!” Pidge exclaims with a big smile.

“It’s his punishment!” Lance exclaims, releasing Keith.

Keith collapses on the ground, trying to catch his breath again. He looks up at Lance and smiles widely at him. Lance returns the smile after a few seconds. “Truce?” Keith offers, still breathing heavily.

Lance rolls his eyes and offers a hand to help Keith up. “Truce.”

The four make their way back to the tents, laughing with each other and discussing the game. Couldn’t summer just last forever? Keith could live in this moment right now for the rest of eternity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brb I gotta get a glass of water bc I'm THIRSTY after looking at that shirtless Lance drawing xD
> 
> I swear I'm not insane!!!!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com/)


	3. The Dark Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a thrilling Irish win, everyone winds down and heads to bed, but Keith, for some reason, can't fall asleep. Thoughts of Lance fill his mind - most of them of why he's so dense.
> 
> Anyway, his thoughts are interrupted by Luis who wakes them up and tells them to get outside. Chaos ensues and Keith gets separated from his friends. His head begins to hurt and something _green_ forms in the clouds...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 is here! It's a bit short, but important nonetheless...
> 
> Enjoy~

After several hours of discussing the game, the four tents quiet down and everyone heads to bed to get some sleep. Keith stares up at the bunk above him where Lance is probably sound asleep. For some reason he doesn’t feel tired. Maybe it’s the adrenaline of the game or the fact Lance is the  _ densest _ person on the planet.

Okay, hold on a minute. That’s not what Keith means. Lance is a fantastic wizard and very smart when it comes to learning about magic. He retains a lot of information, but never gives himself the credit he deserves because the Hat didn’t put him in Ravenclaw even though the Hat  _ wanted _ to put him in Ravenclaw. Lance just clearly can’t pick up on the obvious hints Keith’s dropping about his feelings. It’s probably because Lance has the fattest crush on Nyma Valentina, a fifth year at Hogwarts who also is the Seeker for Ravenclaw. Keith has no bloody clue what Lance sees in her because she’s a complete-

“Boys, wake up,” Luis suddenly whispers. “Get outside now.”

Keith scrambles out of bed as Lance hops down from the top bunk. He quickly puts a shirt on and both boys grab their wands before heading outside. Pidge and Hunk join them and they turn to see a crowd of masked/hooded wizards marching through the camp with muggles levitating above them.

“What the hell are they doing?” Keith demands.

Keith gasps when he sees a large fire spring up from one of the tents in the distance and a group of people scream, running from it. Flashes of magic come from various areas around the campsite. Keith doesn’t know where to direct his focus.

A loud blast of magic from the wizards startles Keith and his friends so they run into the forest to avoid them. Something falls out of Keith’s pocket, but he doesn’t stop to see what it was. They come to a halt when they see Damien Morrison leaning against a tree.

He chuckles at them when he sees them. “Running somewhere, aren’t we? I didn’t think Keith Kogane could get scared,” he taunts.

“Piss off, Damien!” Lance shouts, stepping beside Keith.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Keith wonders, narrowing his eyes at Damien.

“Those wizards are rampaging against muggles and mudbloods! I’m living the dream right now!” Damien exclaims with a happy expression. Someone shouts something, getting Damien’s attention and he hurries off.

Another blast of magic comes from the trees, forcing Pidge and Hunk to split off from Lance and Keith. Lance pulls out his wand, but when Keith goes to do the same, he can’t find his wand. “Lance, we have a problem,” Keith whispers, grabbing onto his arm.

“What?” Lance asks.

“I don’t know where my-” Keith shuts his mouth when he hears someone walking in their direction. Keith holds tightly onto Lance’s arm but releases it when he realizes it’s only Chuchule.

She appears to be injured because she’s limping and talking to herself. Keith goes to see if she’s okay but stops when he nearly runs into Vince Offer. They regard each other warily until he disappears back into the forest. Keith looks around for Lance but can’t find him anymore.

“Lance?!” Keith exclaims, frantically turning around to look for him. “Pidge?! Hunk?!” He runs through the trees, accidentally bumping into some stray wizards trying to run for cover. A masked figure passes by Keith who barely manages to duck behind a tree to avoid him.

Moments later Keith hears a spell mumbled and turns to the sky when he hears a crash of thunder. The clouds get thicker and a green smokey skull forms in the sky with a snake coming from its mouth.

The woods around him erupt in screams causing Keith to cover his ears in pain. His head pounds and the noise drowns out around him into a buzz. Keith squeezes his eyes shut, trying to fight the pain.

“-eith!”

Keith hears something but doesn’t react right away. The pain is too much for him to handle. It feels like someone dropped a bag of rocks on his head and repeatedly hit him with a hammer.

“Keith!”

_ Lance? _

Keith opens his eyes to see Lance running towards him. “Lance…?” Keith whispers.

“DUCK!” Lance yells, jumping and tackling Keith to the ground just before a group of wizards send stupefying spells at them. Lance rolls off Keith and both boys look in alarm at the wizards that surrounded them prepare to send another wave of attacks.

“No! Stop!” a voice yells, breaking through to the center. Keith recognizes him as Luis. “Don’t harm them! They-”

“Which one of you conjured it?!” a man demands, breaking through the crowd to point his wand at Lance and Keith. “Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?!”

Luis steps between Lance and Keith and the man. “Throk, please, these boys are innocent.”

Keith furrows his eyebrows, trying to figure out where he’s heard of this man before. He recalls Krolia, his mother, mentioning his name once, but he - oh! Throk Rezkir! Krolia said he works for the Ministry of Magic as head of the Department of International Magic Cooperation. He used to be the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement but was moved after the First Wizarding War. Krolia joked that this was more of a demotion versus a promotion.

“I heard a voice mumble something before Lance and I were nearly killed by these other wizards,” Keith retorts, irritated as he stands up from the ground.

Throk opens his mouth to reply but stops when Alfred Dawson emerges from the trees holding an unconscious Chuchule in his arms. He holds up a wand that she was holding as well. “I found her nearby with this wand,” Alfred says as Throk walks up to him.

“What?! What is Chuchule doing with a wand?!” Throk demands. “Bring her back to consciousness at once!”

Alfred nods and waves his wand over her. After a couple seconds her eyes flutter open and she looks around, clearly confused. “Where am I?”

“Chuchule! What happened?!” Throk demands. “Did you conjure the Dark Mark?”

Chuchule shakes her head no. “I-I did not!”

Keith takes a closer look at the wand and immediately recognizes it as his own. “Wait…that’s my wand!” Keith exclaims. “How did you get my wand?!”

The other wizards murmur with each other, some accusing Keith of casting the Dark Mark and others believing it to be Chuchule. “This was the wand that conjured the Dark Mark,” Alfred says, “but since Keith didn’t have his wand and Chuchule was unconscious…it seems unlikely either of them committed this crime.”

Throk sends the other wizards away and takes Chuchule from Alfred, walking away from the rest of them. Keith overhears him threaten to fire her as she repeatedly apologizes to him for not doing her job. Luis thanks Alfred and takes Keith and Lance back to the tents where everyone, including Hunk and Pidge, are talking with each other. Once they see Lance and Keith, they all look relieved.

Before anyone can speak, Luis raises his hand to speak. “Everything is okay…Lance and Keith are fine and no one got hurt. Usually You-Know-Whose followers, the Galra Phantoms, made the Dark Mark after killing someone.”

Keith furrows his eyebrows. “Were they the masked wizards?”

Luis sighs and nods. “Yes. They were the ones levitating the muggles earlier.”

“I saw them running away from it though,” Lance says. “If it’s their sign, why would they run?”

“They would have been frightened by it because they would’ve thought You-Know-Who was back and found out they betrayed him since they escaped being put in Beta Traz,” Luis explains.

As the others start to ask Luis more questions, Keith begins to think - could this pertain to the pain in his head three nights before? It makes sense if the Dark Mark is connected to Zarkon then the pain in his head earlier would prove that to be true.

Keith falls asleep that night with his dreams plagued with signs of the Dark Mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's no guarantee I'll be posting 4 within the week because I'm working on the next chapter of the Cop AU, but we'll see!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com/)


	4. The New Professor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the excitement of the Quidditch World Cup, everyone heads home to relax a bit before school starts up again - well, that's what the plan was. Things seem to spiral downwards because Luis and Isa have to spend all of their time at the Ministry. Now, who does that leave in charge? The eldest, right? Heh, yeah...how well does _that_ turn out?
> 
> At school, the students meet the new teacher and learn the annual Quidditch Cup won't be taking place. What will happen instead?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post 4 since it was just sitting there waiting to be posted lol
> 
> Enjoy~

Early the next morning, the McClain party, Tasha, and Keith say goodbye to the Garetts, Holts, and McGivneys and head home. Luis immediately heads to the Ministry to clear up rumors written by a reporter named Luxia Loraine in an article about what happened at the Quidditch World Cup. Keith decides to take this time to tell Hunk and Lance about the pain in his head and they reacted just as Keith predicted they would - Lance disregarding it because his head never hurt and Hunk urging Keith to tell Shiro about it.

For the following week, things only seem to get worse and worse at the McClain household. Luis and Isa spend most of their time at the Ministry of Magic dealing with the many problems that popped up due to the events at the Quidditch World Cup. Since Keith, Lance, and Hunk don’t know much about who Luxia Loraine is, they ask Hunk’s parents and they tell them that she’s got a knack and reputation for ruining other wizards’ reputations in her news articles. Most of the time her articles lack any truth or facts, but, since she writes them in a way that makes them interesting, everyone believes her.

On the night before Lucy, Marco, Lance, and Keith are supposed to leave, the house is in an uproar. Since Carlos is the eldest in the house, he took it upon himself to get everyone’s robes and clothes ready for the school year. He brings them an armful of laundered dress robes, but everyone yells at him, saying he did it wrong.

Luckily Hannah went to stay at Tasha’s house for the rest of summer vacation, otherwise she and Carlos would have gone at each other’s throats.

Without Luis or Isa to mediate and diffuse the situation, Lucy and Carlos scream at each other about the ruined dress robes while Marco and Lance get into a fight about which robe is theirs. Now that both boys are the same height, it gets harder to tell which article of clothing theirs is. Since they can’t tell the difference, they begin to yell at Carlos for mixing everything up which brings the argument into a full circle.

Keith gives up trying to calm everyone down and heads upstairs to attempt to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow, but he knows that won’t happen with the loudness of the McClain kids coming from the living room.

 

* * *

 

 

A loud booming crash of thunder startles Keith and Lance awake the next morning. They begrudgingly make their way downstairs and find Luis, Lucy, and Carlos attempting to make breakfast in the kitchen. Keith senses the tension between the two siblings but knows they won’t start anything with Luis in the same room.

Keith goes to sit on the couch, but jumps, startled, when he hears a voice come from the fireplace. He and Lance walk over to see Alfred Dawson’s head formed in the ashes and wood. “Oh! Hello boys! Is Luis around?” he wonders.

Upon hearing his name, Luis hurries into the living room. “Yes, I’m here!” he exclaims. “What do you need Alfred?”

“It appears that Zethrid Rozinov sent her dustbins to attack what she thought was an intruder, but actually was just a muggle mail deliverer and has been caught by muggle policemen,” Alfred reports.

Luis rubs his forehead. “Alright, I’m on my way.” He walks over to the stairs. “ISA! I HAVE TO RUN TO THE MINISTRY! PLEASE MAKE SURE EVERYONE GETS TO KING’S CROSS ON TIME!” He then apparates out of the house just as Alfred’s head disappears from the fireplace.

Seconds later Isa comes running down the stairs, hair put up in a messy bun. “Lance, Keith, please go get packed!” She turns to the kitchen. “LUCY! GO GET PACKED NOW!” She walks over into the kitchen as Lucy walks out. Isa begins talking rapid fire Spanish with Carlos, but Keith doesn’t pick up on any of the words.

Lance leads him upstairs and they start packing their trunks. “So, who’s Zethrid Rozinov?” Keith wonders.

“Oh! I think she used to be a Marmorite, but she’s not one anymore,” Lance shares, packing his clothes up.

“Marmorite?” Keith questions.

“Dark wizard catcher,” Lance clarifies. “My mom used to be one before, but once she had the twins she quit so she could take care of the kids.”

Keith nods and finishes packing up his trunk just as Lance does and they head downstairs to find Lucy and Marco all ready to go. Isa ushers everyone outside and into the muggle taxicabs that will take them to King’s Cross Station. Once they arrive, they enter platform nine and three quarters where all wizard students attending Hogwarts meet to board the Hogwarts Express. Lucy meets up with Hannah and their other friends and board the train. Marco finds some of his friends and they get on the train as well. Isa leans down and whispers to Lance and Keith saying, “You guys might be seeing Patrick and I sooner than you think.”

Before Keith and Lance can ask for more information, Pidge and Hunk find them and drag them onto the train. Isa waves goodbye and leaves. Keith and his friends walk through the train in search of an empty compartment, but Keith stops when he hears Damien and Bethany talking with their friends.

“Yeah, my father wanted to send me to Durmstrang instead, but my mother wanted me to get an education at Hogwarts,” Damien boasts. “I think I’d prefer it there honestly…that way maybe I’d have some actual competition when it comes to Quidditch.”

Bethany snickers. “Oh, Damien! I wish I could do something for you so you could have better Quidditch players to play against.”

Keith nearly vomits and hurries to find his friends. He opens the door to the compartment and plops down next to Lance. “Well, it’s nice of you to finally join us,” Pidge comments.

“Sorry, Damien caught my attention with something. He was talking about the school Durmstrang,” Keith shares. “He said his father wanted to send him there instead.”

Hunk scoffs. “Not surprised. That school is known for its central teaching in the Dark Arts.”

“Keith, didn’t you say that one wizard kid at that foster home you stayed at attended Durmstrang?” Lance wonders.

“Yeah, it’s in Northern Europe, but I don’t think he goes there anymore. At one point, I saw a warning letter that if he didn’t get better grades they were gonna kick him out of the school,” Keith says.

Lance raises his eyebrows. “Wow. Tough school.”

“It’s a prestigious school,” Keith says with an eyeroll. “I think it’s loads of crap. They don’t allow girls there so I’m shocked Caleb survived there.”

Pidge chuckles. “Amazing. A part of me wonders how he’s doing…I hope he did get kicked out.” She pauses for a moment. “Isn’t there an all-girls wizarding school too? I forget the name.”

Hunk nods. “Yeah! Beauxbatons! Shay told me she almost went there, but her parents decided to send her to Hogwarts at the last second.”

“Really? What’s that school known for?” Pidge wonders.

Keith listens to Hunk as he shares with them what he’s heard from Shay about Beauxbatons until the train arrives at Hogwarts. They get off the train and meet up with their other friends, Delia Trang, Paul Franco, Xander Castillo, Layla Castillo, and Shay Clark. Keith immediately sparks into a conversation with Xander and Layla as he gets into one of the horseless carriages with them. The carriage takes to the castle while the first years cross the lake in boats with Slav and Coran. It’s still dark out so the lanterns surrounding the castle light it up, creating an eerie but intriguing feel to it. Keith finds himself smiling at the immense beauty of it, excited to start another year at Hogwarts. 

Once the students enter the castle, they are bombarded with water balloons from Peeves who is the school’s annoying poltergeist. Drenched and annoyed, Keith, Xander, and Layla make their way to the Slytherin table and sit with Keith’s friends on the Quidditch team, Reyna McGivney, Sophia Barre, and Stella Alamilla. While deep in conversation about plans for the Quidditch season, Keith spots Nearly Headless Nick talking with Lance, Delia, and Paul while everyone waits for the sorting to begin.

Keith directs his attention over to the professors’ table to see which teachers are there. He obviously sees Shiro, Matt, and Allura sitting at one end talking with each other. Coran, Samuel Holt, and Colleen Holt, the school’s nurse they hired last year, are next followed by Slav and Thace. The empty seat between Colleen and Slav appears to be for the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Keith feels sad again that Lotor won’t be there, but knows he made the right choice in resigning - despite Keith and his friends being pissed about it.

Anyway, once the first years enter the hall, Allura places the Sorting Hat down on the stool and begins reading off students’ names. Keith half pays attention, mainly discussing the outcome of the Quidditch World Cup with Sophia and Xander, but he joins in the Slytherin table clapping whenever a student is sorted into his house.

Dinner appears on the table and Keith loads his plate up with all the delicious food he can, realizing he hasn’t eaten anything all day. The Great Hall quiets down as Shiro approaches the podium.

“Hello everyone! Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts and welcome to our new first years. I hope you all find a way to call this place home.” He smiles at them then clears his throat. “I have a few announcements to get out of the way. Firstly, the annual Quidditch Cup will not take place this year. Instead-”

The entire Hall erupts in grumbles and protests. Stella slams her fist on the table in outrage. “What?! This is my last year here and this is how I get repaid?! This is crap!” She crosses her arms in protest.

“In its place will be-” Shiro starts again but stops when the doors to the Great Hall open to reveal a gnarled, grumpy-looking woman with a large swiveling eye. Shiro raises an eyebrow at the woman. “Professor Rozinov, you’re late.”

The woman grumbles and makes her way down between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables. “Something came up at the Ministry, headmaster…my sincerest apologies.”

Shiro nods. “It’s alright. I believe this is a good time to introduce you.” He looks back out at the students. “Everyone, this is Zethrid Rozinov, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I trust that you all will treat her with the utmost respect you give the rest of us.”

Zethrid nods at the students and takes her seat at the professors’ table.

“Now, back to what I was saying. Instead of the Quidditch Cup, we will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament. This is a competition between one representative of each of the three largest European schools of wizardry: Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts. It’s been discontinued for thousands of years, but the Ministry of Magic has taken enough precautions for it to resume. The winner of this competition will receive a thousand galleons, but no one younger than seventeen years old can enter,” Shiro announces.

Once again, the entire Great Hall erupts in outrage at this age limit, but the seventh years, including Stella, seem to be happy with this rule. On their way to the Slytherin common room, Sophia and Reyna urge Stella to enter the competition.

Keith goes to bed that night, dreaming that he entered the Triwizard Tournament and won. He imagines Lance walking up to him with a large trophy in his hand, congratulating Keith on being so brave and daring. In the dream, Keith finds himself leaning closer and closer to Lance, eyes fluttering shut so he can kiss him.

When their lips are millimeters apart, Keith wakes up with a gasp, sitting up straight in bed.

He looks around the room to see if anyone else heard him and woke up as well, but luckily no one did. Keith lays back down and groans quietly to himself, covering his face with his hands.

Lance will be the death of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're welcome for that dream Keith had ;)
> 
> Chapter 5 is a pretty big chapter and will be put on the back burner so I can actually finish up the outline for the next cop chapter. I'm excited where both of these AUs are heading!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	5. The Three Unforgivable Curses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Classes start up at Hogwarts and Keith begins to question the sanity of some of the professors at the school. Actually, more like questioning the sanity of Slav and what purpose his classes serve - especially Divination. Pidge didn't believe in that nonsense so why should Keith?
> 
> However, Defense Against the Dark Arts brings Keith back into reality. Zethrid's teaching methods awed his older friends when they had her class so Keith fills with excitement, waiting in anticipation for his turn to have Zethrid's class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!
> 
> I know I'm supposed to be working on the Cop chapter, but I swear I am. I just wanna keep this one relevant enough so people don't lose interest lol
> 
> Enjoy~

The next day, ignoring the fluttering feelings inside from his dream last night, Keith goes about his daily business during his classes. In Herbology with Pidge, Coran teaches the Slytherins and Ravenclaws how to collect Bubotuber Pus, a disgusting green/yellow liquid found in the swellings of the Bubotuber plant. The pus has healing powers that are typically used as a remedy for severe cases of acne. In order to collect it, one must squeeze the swellings of the plant and catch the pus in bottles. Honestly, it was the most disgusting yet oddly satisfying thing Keith’s ever done in his entire life.

In Care of Magical Creatures, Slav teaches the Slytherins and Gryffindors about Skrewts and shows them some newly hatched ones. Skrewts are these strange lobster-like creatures that bite, sting, and propel themselves forward by blasting from one end of their bodies - Keith has no fricken clue if it’s from the front or back. Slav explains the differences between male and female skrewts, but, in Keith’s and probably everyone else’s eyes, they still look the same. No one can tell where their mouths are, how to feed them, or what purpose there is in keeping them alive. Luckily the class gets out early because Damien knocked over a box of them, setting them free.

After lunch, Keith meets up with Lance again so they can head to Divination together. Once they arrive, Slav begins teaching. “Hello class! Today - Keith, if you keep worrying, the terrible thing  _ will _ happen!” Slav suddenly exclaims. “I see it happening in several realities!”

Keith sits up in his seat, startled at being called out. He wasn’t even thinking about anything bad, but now he’s worried. “Sir, what-”

“Anyway, onto the planets!” Slav exclaims, pulling down a map of different planets. “You can use the alignment of the planets and a person’s past to determine when they were born.” He points at Lance. “You must have been born in midwinter because of your coloring and tragic past!”

Keith furrows his eyebrows in confusion and looks at Lance. What the hell was Slav talking about? Usually Keith could follow Slav’s strange logic, but this was just too odd.

Lance chuckles. “Um…my birthday is in June.”

The class suddenly bursts out in laughter at Slav’s wrong prediction. He attempts to calm everyone down, but, seeing as though he’s outnumbered, he gives up. “Fine! Since no one will take this class seriously, I am assigning you four essays on predictions based on planetary alignments!” Everyone groans in protest but stops when Slav threatens to add another two essays.

Keith and Lance exchange a smirk before leaving Slav’s classroom to head to the Great Hall for dinner. The two boys go to split off for their respective tables but stop when they hear Damien’s voice.

“ _ …which is why I believe Luis McClain is an incompetent wizard for not knowing how to deal with muggle policemen in a civilized fashion _ ,” Damien finishes, causing the group around him to burst out in laughter.

Keith steps aside, allowing Lance to march right up to Damien and rip the paper out of his hand. “What the hell, Damien?” Lance demands.

“Oh, look who it is! One of the incompetent sons!” Damien exclaims. “Honestly, how pathetic do you feel to have that man as a father? You’re a disgrace to all purebloods.”

Lance opens his mouth to retort, but Keith walks up with a sly expression of his own. “At least Mr. McClain doesn’t always have a perpetually unpleasant expression on his face when someone mentions Lance’s name. What’s your excuse Damien? Your mom always seems disappointed in you,” Keith taunts.

“What do you know, Kogane?! Your mother is an estranged murderer!” Damien exclaims.

“And yet mine still loves me more than yours ever will,” Keith retorts smugly, earning some ooo’s from the surrounding crowd.

Lance high fives Keith and they both turn to go into the Great Hall, but a spark of red light flies past Keith’s head. Keith whirls around, eyes wide, and sees Damien with his wand pointed at him. “Hey! What the hell is your-” Keith starts, but Zethrid storms over.

She raises her wand and points it at Damien, an orange burst of light spewing out and hitting him in the chest. Damien’s eyes widen in fear as he begins to shrink down into a white-furred ferret. Keith covers his mouth and stifles a laugh as Zethrid begins to make the ferret float in the air.

“This’ll teach you to never strike an opponent when their back is turned!” she exclaims.

Keith, Lance, and the crowd around them burst out in laughter as Zethrid makes the ferret dance around in the air. Bethany screams as she sends the ferret on her hair, messing everything up and knocking her glasses to the floor. Zethrid then sends the ferret down Nathaniel’s pants, earning a scream from him. Keith holds his stomach, tears spilling down his cheeks from laughing so hard.

Suddenly Allura walks by and comes over to see the commotion. She tilts her head in confusion when she sees Zethrid levitating the ferret once it crawls out of Nathaniel’s pant leg. “Zethrid, what…what are you doing?!” Allura demands.

“Teaching!” Zethrid exclaims.

Allura looks closer at the ferret. “Is that a…is that a student?!”

“Well, technically it’s a ferret,” Zethrid offers nonchalantly.

Allura takes her wand out and with one swish of it, an orange spark comes out which turns Damien back into a human. She turns back to Zethrid. “We do not use Transfiguration as a form of punishment!” She glares at everyone else. “Get into the Great Hall, now! Or else you all are getting detentions!”

Everyone, still laughing, scrambles into the Great Hall. Before Keith heads over to the Slytherin table, Lance pulls Keith close and whispers, “I bet Allura really misses Lotor now.”

Keith snickers. “If he was friends with my mother, we both know he’d pull the same stunt.”

Lance laughs loudly and nods, heading over to his table. Keith smiles triumphantly for successfully making him laugh then joins his friends at the Slytherin table. He takes a seat between Stella and Reyna, across from Sophia, Xander, and Layla. “Did any of you see what went down outside the Great Hall?” Keith wonders.

“No, but I heard laughing and screaming! Did you see what happened?” Stella asks.

Keith snickers and nods. “Zethrid turned Damien into a ferret and made him dance around as punishment for trying to attack me while my back was turned! She made him run around on Bethany’s hair and go down Nathaniel’s pants!”

His friends burst out laughing, Sophia nearly choking on her drink. “Oh my god! That’s only the tip of the iceberg of how awesome Zethrid is. Just wait ‘till you have her in class!” Sophia exclaims.

Reyna nods and the two girls take turns sharing what Zethrid’s teaching style is and her knowledge in the Dark Arts. Excitement fills Keith as he looks forward to having Defense Against the Dark Arts.

 

* * *

 

 

Over the next few days, Keith notices that Thace seems especially timid and innocuous around Zethrid. He assumes it’s because of her reputation as an ex-Marmorite and the fact that he used to be a Galra Phantom. Keith thought this would make him be a little nicer to everyone, but it just causes Thace to be more of a nightmare to everyone. In potions, he forced Xander to spend an entire afternoon disemboweling horned frogs just because he answered a question wrong.

Pidge didn’t even know the answer!

How unfair is that?!

Anyway, to take his mind off of Thace’s stupid antics, he and Lance walk into Zethrid’s classroom for Defense Against the Dark Arts. The set-up of the classroom is the same as Lotor had it with the desks facing the front of the classroom, but there are more trinkets and such scattered around. Some of this stuff Keith would expect to find in Thace’s classroom, but since Zethrid used to be a Marmorite, this doesn’t really surprise him.

The door opens, signaling the students to take their seats. Keith and Lance sit near the front and turn to watch Zethrid walk into the classroom, grizzled and gruff. “Alright everyone, put away your books,” she orders. “Your past professors have taught you dark creatures, but you are far behind in curses. I have one year to cover the subject so we’re getting started right away.” She folds her hands together and leans against the desk. “But first, who can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?”

“Three, ma’am,” Delia says from behind Lance and Keith.

“And why are they called that?” Zethrid asks.

Delia takes a shaky breath. “Because they are Unforgivable…using any of them will-”

“-earn you a one-way ticket into Beta Traz, correct,” Zethrid says with a nod. “The ministry says you all are too young to see what these curses do, but I say different! You need to know what you’re up against! You need to be prepared!” She begins writing on the board. “You need to find another place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr. Castillo!”

Keith and Lance turn around in their seats to see Xander’s eyes wide in fear. He moves his hand out from under the desk. “No way! The old hag can see out of the back of her head!”

Zethrid turns around and chucks a piece of chalk at him. Keith ducks and watches as it hits Xander in the shoulder. “And hear across classrooms! So, which curse should we see first?” She sets her hand on Keith’s and Lance’s desk. “McClain!”

Lance jumps, startled. “Yes?!”

“Stand,” Zethrid orders.

Lance does as told, clearly terrified. “Give us a curse,” Zethrid says.

“Well, um, my dad did tell me about one…the Imperius curse,” Lance shares.

Zethrid nods. “Oh yes, your father would know all about that one. He gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago…perhaps this will show you why.” She walks over to one of the large jars she has set up by the windows and opens one up that contains a spider. She picks it up on her hand and mutters a spell that causes the spider to grow a bit larger. “Imperio!” A yellow-green spark of magic comes out of her wand and hits the spider.

She suddenly sends it onto a desk, earning some screams from them then she brings it over to where Bethany is sitting and puts it on her face. Keith snickers when she shrieks loudly.

“Don’t worry! It’s completely harmless!” Zethrid exclaims. She brings it back to the front and places it on Lance’s head.

Lance gasps and whimpers in fear. Keith sees his hands grip his seat tightly as the spider crawls around on his face. Damien laughs loudly at him and Keith glares at Damien, opening his mouth to yell, but Zethrid beats him to it.

“What are you laughing at?!” Zethrid demands, sending the spider onto Damien’s face. The class laughs loudly and with glee at Damien’s screams.

“Talented, isn’t it? What should I have it do next? Jump out the window?” Zethrid moves the spider so it smacks against the window. “Drown itself?” She moves it above a jug of water at the front of the room. The class’s laughter dies down when Zethrid suggests more destructive things to do to the spider. She brings it back into her hand and looks at the class. “Countless witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Whose bidding under the influence of the Imperius curse, but here’s the rub: how do we sort out the liars?” She raises an eyebrow. “Another curse?”

Keith turns when he sees Layla slowly raise her hand. Zethrid looks over at her. “Ah, yes, the other Castillo, correct? Up you go. Coran tells me you have an aptitude for herbology.”

Layla nods as she stands up. “There’s the Cruciatus curse.”

“Correct, correct!” Zethrid exclaims. “Come, come.” She waves Layla over to the table where the spider is. “Take a look…the torture curse. Crucio!” A flash of red light comes out of her wand and hits the spider causing it to squirm in pain.

Keith winces and scrunches his face, not liking the protest sound the spider is making. He desperately wants it to stop, but he knows it won’t stop. Keith sees Layla’s eyebrows furrow in pain and her fist clench as if she’s feeling everything the spider is.

“Stop it!” Delia suddenly exclaims. “Can’t you see it’s bothering her!?”

Zethrid looks up from the spider and notices Layla’s expression. She stops at once then picks up the spider, bringing it over to Delia. “Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Miss Trang?”

Delia bites her lip and shakes her head no.

“No?” Zethrid raises her wand once again and points it at the spider. “Avada Kedavra!”

Keith jumps in his seat when the green light comes from Zethrid’s wand and hits the spider, instantly killing it. He stares at it with wide eyes, trying not to think back to when his father died from it. Something brushes against his hand and he looks down to see Lance’s trembling hand trying to find his own. Keith takes it and gives it a reassuring squeeze as Zethrid turns back to everyone.

“The killing curse,” Zethrid says. “Only two people are known to have survived it and they’re sitting in this room.” She steps in front of Lance’s and Keith’s desk. Lance is still too afraid to look up, iron grip on Keith’s hand.

Keith looks up at her, firm, but neutral expression on his face. He quirks his eyebrow up slightly when Zethrid’s face twitches and when she pulls something out of her pocket to drink out of.

“Anyway! That’s enough for this lesson today…keep a constant vigilance! Class dismissed!” she exclaims.

Keith takes no extra time to get himself and Lance out of that classroom. He pulls Lance along as they exit and walk over to one of the windows looking out at the courtyard of the school. “Lance, are you okay?” Keith asks.

“I could see it…I-I saw her die again,” Lance whispers, voice wavering.

Keith pulls him in for a tight hug, wrapping his arms tightly around Lance’s neck. He feels Lance hug Keith back and quietly cry onto his shoulder. Keith watches Layla walk out of the class last, holding a book he doesn’t recognize. Zethrid pats her on the shoulder and sends her off.

“Come on, let’s head to the library,” Keith says, releasing Lance. “Pidge and Hunk should be waiting for us.”

Lance nods, wiping his cheeks. He follows Keith over to the library where they find Pidge and Hunk at one of the tables working diligently on their homework. Hunk is working on Potions while Pidge is working on Charms. Keith and Lance join them, getting out their Divination homework to finish.

Since Lance still seems to be a bit upset about what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Keith decides to make up some horrible scenarios based on random planetary alignments. Lance notices what he’s doing and proceeds to join in, mood lightening up quickly.

“Guys, don’t-” Pidge starts, but is interrupted when Blue flies in carrying a letter in her beak.

Lance expects her to land in front of him but raises his eyebrows in shock when she lands in front of Keith instead. “I’m sorry for using Blue,” Keith says sheepishly to Lance as he removes Krolia’s letter from Blue’s mouth.

“Don’t be,” Lance replies. “You’re free to use her whenever you want.” He gives Keith a kind smile and goes back to his work.

Keith looks back down at the letter, quickly skimming through it. Basically, she said she’s been hearing lots of odd signs, much like the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup and wants Keith to go to Shiro if his head hurts again. Krolia also shares that she is returning to visit and will be in touch with Keith soon.

He sets the letter down and immediately feels guilty for telling Krolia about his issues. Did Keith put her in danger by telling her about his headaches? Now that she’s apparently coming to visit…that can only mean bad things if she gets caught.

Keith suddenly shuts all his books, startling his friends. “I’m heading to bed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Before any of them can protest, Keith storms out of the library and back to his common room up to his dorm. He gets ready for bed and lays awake, restless with worry about his mother. His dreams are plagued with nightmares about her getting caught and being killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I didn't appreciate that last drawing of Lance either, but alas I cannot control what the artist does and doesn't! Oh well :)
> 
> High School AU Update: I'm finishing the next addition to it right now and it should be up within the next couple days :)
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	6. The Three (Four?) Champions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anticipation to see who will be chosen as the champions for the Triwizard tournament is at an all-time high. Sophia and Reyna try out some things, but things don't turn out too well for them. The other two schools arrive at Hogwarts as well, just in time for them to enter their names before the Chalice of Quintessence chooses the three champions. Who will be the Hogwarts champion?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed a long break from this AU to get my senses together, but now I'm back and ready to get going on this again. I'm super excited for what I have in store for the rest of this book. :)
> 
> Enjoy~

The morning after hearing from Krolia, Keith wakes up early to head to the Owlery where he uses Blue to send a letter to her, disclaiming his head pain and tells her to stay where she is. He waits in anticipation for her response, but nothing comes for a few days.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, taking his mind off the letter, Zethrid places the students under the Imperius Curse in order to teach them how to ward it off and resist it. They do strange things under her control. Zethrid makes Xander and Layla crawl on the floor and makes Lance and Delia slow dance across the classroom. When it’s Keith’s turn, he hears Zethrid order him to jump on the table. As Keith prepares to jump, he suddenly starts wondering why he should do what Zethrid tells him which ultimately causes him to crash into the table. Since he questioned it, he was able to resist Zethrid’s order, delighting Zethrid immensely.

Classes get busier from there on and near the end of October, a poster informs the students that delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving on October 30th in the evening. Shay turns to Hunk. “We should go tell Rolo,” she says.

Hunk nods in agreement and they hurry off to do so. Keith, Lance, and Pidge exchange confused expressions but split up to head to bed nonetheless. Keith arrives at his common room and walks over to where Xander and Layla are doing homework. “Did you guys see the posters about the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students coming at the end of October?” Keith asks.

Layla looks at him and nods. “Yeah! I’m excited to see who gets picked for the tournament!”

“Hunk and Shay saw it and ran off to tell Rolo Dawson when the other schools would be coming,” Keith shares. “I dunno why though.”

“He’s a talented wizard. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was picked as the Hogwarts champion,” Layla says.

Xander scoffs. “Yeah, right, Stella is a much better wizard than him!”

“Stella may be better in execution, but Rolo gets better grades than her,” Layla says.

“You only think he’s better because you think he’s handsome!” Xander exclaims, pointing a finger at her.

The twins continue arguing with each other while Blue flies through the window with a letter in her beak. Keith opens it and sighs, seeing that Krolia will still be coming to visit, assuring that she’ll be staying well-hidden. He folds the letter and puts it in his pocket then heads upstairs to his bed, too frustrated to get a head start on his homework.

Keith’s week continues to be uneventful and boring until October 30th arrives. The Hogwarts students wait in anticipation outside of the castle to watch the other two schools arrive. First, the Beauxbatons students arrive in a large blue flying carriage flown by two just as large white horses. From the carriage emerges the headmistress, Madam Maxime who is an oversized, but attractive woman. She waves to the Hogwarts students and shakes Shiro’s hand when he approaches her. Keith moves his attention back to the carriage where a large group of the Beauxbatons girls emerges shivering, clearly underdressed for the wintertime.

Minutes later, a great ghostly ship emerges from the Hogwarts lake and sails towards the dock. Keith’s eyes widen in awe at the immense size of it. To him, it looks like a giant pirate ship made out of dark brown wood and grey sails. It stops at the dock, allowing the Durmstrang boys to exit. Leading the students is a shifty, shrewd-looking man named Ranveig Korsman. Keith remembers his mom talking about him and how he used to be a Galra Phantom until Zethrid caught and stopped him.

Keith’s thoughts are interrupted when Lance taps his shoulder repeatedly, pointing at the group of Durmstrang boys. “Look who it is!” he exclaims in a whisper. “Antok Hamamoto!”

Looking closer, Keith realizes that the guy Lance is pointing at is, in fact, the Bulgarian Seeker. Keith frowns a bit at Lance’s excitement but doesn’t say anything about it because he doesn’t want to ruin Lance’s fun. He grabs Lance’s arm once Hunk gestures for them to follow everyone into the Great Hall.

Everyone files into the Great Hall causing a major back up at the doors. Keith notes that most of the Hogwarts and Beauxbaton girls are in a great fluster trying to get Antok’s autograph while the Hogwarts boys are fighting with each other to have him sit near them. In all the commotion, the houses split up and sit wherever they please. Keith ends up sitting with Hunk, Shay, and Pidge at the Gryffindor table with Lance.

Antok winds up sitting at what would be the Slytherin table, much to Lance’s dismay. He gives Keith a bit of a hard time not leading them in that direction and continues to be sour during the rest of dinner. To add to the pouty mood, the Beauxbaton students scowl and complain about the sitting arrangements and the food in front of them despite it being an eclectic mix of dishes to accommodate the nationality of each school. Keith resists the urge to yell at everyone to stop being ungrateful because it’d only do more harm than good.

Lance’s mood does a 180 when one of the Beauxbaton girls winks at him after she catches him staring. Keith looks at her as well, definitely concluding that she’s taller than Lance by at least an inch or two. The girl has blue ends on her hair and bright blue eyes. Lance opens his mouth to say something to her, but his attention turns to Nyma Valentina when she sits near them with some of her Ravenclaw friends. They exchange a smile and a wave, pissing Keith off.

Keith huffs in annoyance and ignores Lance the rest of dinner. To distract himself, he looks over at the head table where he sees Vince Offer and Throk Rezkir talking with Shiro. They’re probably here to help judge the Triwizard Tournament.

Shiro approaches the podium. “Hello everyone! May I have your attention please!” Everyone quiets down allowing Shiro to talk. “Thank you! Now, this is the moment most, if not all, of you have been waiting for. I would like to introduce to you the Chalice of Quintessence.”

He waves his hand and a large golden rimmed chalice slowly floats forward in front of the podium. Keith looks in awe at the glowing purple liquid inside and the purple flames coming from the top. “Those who wish to enter the tournament should write their name on a piece of paper and place it inside the chalice. I have drawn an age line around its perimeter so no one under seventeen can approach. I really advise against trying to put your name in if you are under seventeen, but I won’t tell you the consequence. I find that it’ll be more amusing to see the results of your actions.”

Dinner ends shortly after and everyone begins heading out of the Great Hall. As Ranveig is fawning over Antok, he notices Keith and stops to stare at him. Keith immediately feels uncomfortable about it, wondering if he’s trying to will Keith to burst into flames or something. Luckily Zethrid approaches and angrily tells Ranveig not to hold up the line, sending him on his way.

Shivers run down Keith’s spine as he reaches his common room and heads up to bed. Why would Ranveig have an interest in him? Keith’s never even met the guy and Ranveig already hates him!

 

* * *

 

 

The next day, Keith goes with Xander and Layla to watch Sophia and Reyna attempt to use a potion to age themselves up so they can put their names in the Chalice of Quintessence.

“Guys, I’m telling you it’s gonna work,” Layla says, taking a seat. “If they made the potion correctly, they will age up.”

Xander scoffs. “Do you really think Professor Shirogane would allow a loophole like that?”

“I’m with Xander,” Keith says. “Besides, don’t you remember what Shiro said at the podium? There would be a consequence.”

“Well, let’s just watch and see what happens!” Layla exclaims.

Sophia and Reyna snicker with each other and walk up to the line. “Alright, you ready Rey?” Sophia wonders with a big smile.

“You know it!” Reyna exclaims. “Cheers!”

The two girls clink glasses and Sophia raises hers up. “Bottoms up!” she exclaims, taking a big swig of the drink.

Keith winces, expecting something bad to happen to them, but nothing changes about them. Did the potion even work?

“Do you think it worked?” Reyna asks.

Sophia shrugs. “Only one way to find out!” She steps over the white line around the chalice and Reyna follows suit. Nothing happens to them and they laugh in triumph, high-fiving each other.

“Hah!” Layla exclaims.

Keith raises an eyebrow as the two girls put their pieces of paper in the chalice. “Hmm…I guess Shiro didn’t-”

He suddenly stops and gasps as the chalice turns a dark red, spitting their pieces of paper back out. Seconds later the age line throws Reyna and Sophia away which causes their hair to turn grey and beards to grow on their faces.

Xander and Keith laugh with each other while Layla crosses her arms and pouts. “Well that was a bust!” she exclaims.

“Oh, come on! It was funny!” Xander exclaims.

Keith smiles at his friends then looks at a clock, realizing he’s gonna be late for his meeting with Coran. “Crap, I gotta go guys. I’ll see you two later.” He collects his stuff and hurries to Coran’s office where he finds Lance, Pidge, and Hunk already inside. “Sorry, I’m late! I-” Keith scrunches his nose when he gets a whiff of something that smells like wet dog. “What is that awful smell?!”

“My cologne!” Coran exclaims, turning around from where he’s making the tea. “And it most certainly does  _ not _ smell bad!”

Keith’s eyes widen when he sees Coran’s hair slicked back, looking really greasy. “Right…” He sits down next to Lance. “So, why are you all dressed up?”

Pidge shakes her head no but stops when Coran turns back around.

“Is a man not allowed to look presentable from time to time?!” Coran demands. “I didn’t know it was a crime!”

Keith blinks at Coran, slightly shocked at the outburst. “Sorry…I was just wondering…”

Coran sighs. “I’m sorry. It’s just that Slav’s skrewts have grown and begun ruining my plants outside!”

Keith looks at Lance with a raised eyebrow, wondering what Coran’s problem is. Lance simply just rolls his eyes and shakes his head no.

They continue discussing the tournament and ask Coran’s thoughts on who he thinks will be chosen. He hopes for someone from Hufflepuff, but he can’t be biased about whoever is chosen. It starts getting late and they all head to the Great Hall together for dinner. On their way over, Coran is distracted by Madam Maxime and the kids have to get his attention so he doesn’t run into a wall.

During the feast, Keith and his friends continue spectating on who could be chosen as the Hogwarts champion. Keith thinks it’s gonna be Stella since she’s one of the bravest people Keith knows (well, bravest he knows who is over seventeen years old. Pidge and Hunk aren’t convinced, but Lance is certain Keith is right

Once everyone finishes dinner, the Chalice of Quintessence begins to spark blue flames and Shiro stands up to catch whatever papers it spits out. He gets over there and blue flames erupt from the Chalice and an elegant piece of paper flies out. Shiro reaches up and catches it. “The Beauxbatons champion is Plaxum Moreau!” he exclaims.

Half of the Ravenclaw table, where the Beauxbaton girls are, erupts in cheers and the girl with blue ends on her hair and bright blue eyes stands up. Keith recognizes her as the girl who winked at Lance earlier. He immediately crosses his arms and hopes she loses. She makes her way to the room designated for the champions to wait.

The Chalice sparks again and spits out a crumpled looking paper. Shiro catches it and looks at it. “The Durmstrang champion is Antok Hamamoto!”

Most of the Slytherin table erupts in cheers as Antok makes his way over to where the hallway to the room is. The Chalice sparks blue for the third time and spits out another piece of paper. Shiro catches it and reads it. “Finally, the Hogwarts champion is Rolo Dawson!”

The Hufflepuff table screams in delight and starts chanting Rolo’s name as he walks over to where the room is located. Other students pat him on the back and congratulate him as he walks past. Shiro claps his hands together. “Excellent! We now have our three champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history. One will hoist this cup of champions, this vessel of victory, the Triwizard Cup!” Shiro turns and points as a cloth is pulled off the blue glowing cup.

Keith claps along with everyone else, but his smile starts to disappear when he sees Thace slowly approach the Chalice, eyeing it suspiciously. Shiro turns back around to see the purple flames flying out. He shields his eyes as the flames turn to a vibrant red, erupting up and spitting out another piece of paper. He reaches for it and looks at it, muttering something under his breath. “Keith Kogane,” he says out loud. Everyone looks around to where Keith is and he sits down, eyes wide. Up at the front, Coran shakes his head no, refusing to believe Keith’s name was called.

  


“KEITH KOGANE!” Shiro yells.

Pidge shakes his shoulder. “Go on, Keith.” She grabs his arm and shoves him forward. “Keith, for goodness sake.” She pulls him to his feet.

Keith stands up, still in shock. He looks back at his friends, but Hunk and Pidge simply shrug while Lance refuses to look at him. He turns and walks over to where Shiro is. He hands Keith the slip of paper which, sure enough, says his name. Keith makes his way through the area to where the other three champions went. People give him glares and some shout that he cheated and that he’s not even seventeen. He walks past Thace whose expression is unreadable. Allura pats him on the shoulder as he makes his way down the hallway

Plaxum, Antok, and Rolo walk back to the main area of the room and give Keith confused expressions. Before he can say anything, the teachers come running to where they are. Madam Maxime and Ranveig accuse of treachery and protest it.

Shiro marches up to Keith and grabs his shoulders. “Keith! Did you put your name in the Chalice of Quintessence!?”

“No, sir!” Keith exclaims.

“Have one of the older students do it for you?!”

“No, sir!”

“You’re absolutely sure?!”

“Yes, sir!”

Shiro steps away from Keith. “But of course he is lying!” Madam Maxime exclaims.

“The Chalice of Quintessence is an exceptionally powerful magical object only an exceptionally powerful confundus charm could have hoodwinked it - magic way beyond the terms of a fourth year!” Zethrid exclaims.

“You seem to have given this a fair bit of thought, Zethrid,” Ranveig says.

“It was my job to think as a dark wizards do, Ranveig. Perhaps you remember?” Zethrid counters.

“That doesn’t help!” Shiro exclaims, pushing past them to walk up to Throk Rezkir. “I’ll leave this up to you, Throk.”

“The rules are absolute. The Chalice of Quintessence constitutes a binding magical contract.” He turns to look at Keith. “Mr. Kogane has no choice. He is, as of tonight, a Triwizard champion.” He looks at the other three champions. “The contest will consist of three surprise tasks beginning in late November. The first contest is designed to test your daringness and bravery. That’s all I will tell you.”

If Keith’s heart could stop, it would. He has no idea how he’s going to survive through whatever the Triwizard (Tetrawizard?) Tournament has in store. The first task already sounds terrifying enough as it is. Testing his bravery and daringness?! Most of the time Keith’s just faking his way through everything because he has his friends by his side! Now he’s all alone…

He breaks out of his thoughts as the teachers send them back to their dormitories. Keith and Rolo walk the same way to their common rooms since they’re near each other. “Rolo, I swear I have no idea how my name got in the Chalice,” Keith says.

Rolo gives a polite smile and a nod, but, as he splits off, Keith can tell he’s upset and doesn’t believe Keith. On his way to the Slytherin common room, he finds people outside celebrating Keith as a Hogwarts champion. Keith looks around for Pidge, Hunk, and Lance, but frowns when he doesn’t see them. Xander and Layla walk up to him and pat him on the back. “Way to go, Keith! You’re representing Slytherin!” Xander exclaims.

Layla furrows her eyebrows in concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you know where Lance, Hunk, or Pidge are?” Keith asks.

“Um, they left to their dormitories after you walked out of the Great Hall. Pidge and Hunk looked excited, but Lance wasn’t. I heard him say he was pissed that you found a secret way to enter your name but didn’t invite him to join you,” Layla shares.

Keith’s jaw drops in shock. How could Lance, of all people,  _ not _ believe him?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have chapter 7 and 8 written and ready to go and I've started on 9.
> 
> HS AU Update: I'm writing the first part of it right now, but it should be done before April becomes May.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated.  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Writer's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	7. The Champions' Wands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Lance won't talk to him anymore, Keith's life at Hogwarts takes a turn for the worse. Classes he has with Lance are no longer fun (especially Divination because Layla insists they pay attention and make an effort to make real predictions). At least Pidge still talks to him...despite Luxia Loraine, a horrid journalist for _The Daily Prophet_ , trying to make their friendship seem like anything but platonic!
> 
> Keith's wand gets weighed and seeing Ollivander's familiar face makes things a little better...until a certain someone makes him cry, bringing him in a complete circle to where he started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! I was going to have the first task be included in this, but it got too long so I decided to split them up
> 
> Enjoy~

The next morning Keith meets up with Pidge and Hunk who seem to be in a good mood. That’s a good sign…right?

“Hey Keith,” Pidge greets. “Sorry, we weren’t there for you after your name was picked. There was a huge mob of Slytherin people and we didn’t want to get in the way.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m so happy you guys aren’t mad at me,” Keith says.

Hunk nods. “There’s no way you’d put your name in and if you did you would’ve told us and we would’ve shut you down.”

“What about Lance?” Keith asks. “Do you know why he’s ignoring me?”

Pidge sighs. “He’s just mad and jealous of all the attention you get. Plus he’s pissed you didn’t tell him about your scheme to put your name in…even though there was no scheme.”

Keith furrows his eyebrows in confusion. He never knew Lance was jealous since he usually gets the same amount of attention as Keith does. Not to mention Keith tells Lance  _ everything _ ! Okay, not the crush - that doesn’t count. Still, it hurts Keith that Lance doesn’t believe him. They’re best friends…aren’t they?

Doesn’t seem like it anymore.

Anyway, Keith thanks Hunk and Pidge and heads to the Owlery to send Krolia a letter to tell her of everything that’s happened so far. He uses Rover since Blue is ignoring him.

Classes resume and people from all other houses except Slytherin scowl at Keith in the corridors since they believe he entered in hope of attracting even more attention. Keith is beyond stressed and lonely without Lance to talk to. Sure, he has Pidge and Hunk, but they work better together on things and Keith feels like an outsider with them.

In Potions class, Damien, Bethany, their friends, and most of the Ravenclaw students wear light-up badges that say:  _ Support Rolo Dawson - the REAL Hogwarts champion! _ When pressed, the badges show:  _ Kogane stinks! _ Keith does his best to ignore their taunts, having gotten pretty good at tuning out their insults. Damien grows tired of insulting Keith and decides to turn to Pidge, but that gets more of a reaction out of Keith. He explodes and casts a mild disfiguring curse on Damien out of anger. Damien does the same, but both curses miss and hit Bethany and Pidge instead.

Thace, not really in the mood to be dealing with this, sends Bethany and Pidge to the hospital wing and warns both of them to knock it off before going back to helping a Slytherin student with their potion. Keith glowers at Damien, warning him to back off and, luckily, he does.

As Keith is about to get back to working on his potion, Shay walks in the classroom. “Professor Slater? I need to borrow Keith. He has to go to the weighing of the champions’ wands.”

Thace sighs but nods, allowing Keith to leave. Normally, he’d probably protest, but Keith thinks secretly, deep down Thace is happy one of the Slytherin students is a champion. Keith goes to clean up his stuff, but Thace walks over and stops him. “I’ll take care of it, Keith. Go with Shailene,” he instructs.

“Yes sir,” Keith says with a nod before grabbing his bag and following Shay. They walk in silence through one of the halls. Keith doesn’t want to speak just in case she’s mad at him for some reason.

“Keith, you’re allowed to talk,” Shay says gently. “What’s wrong?”

“I just miss Lance…that’s all,” Keith replies.

Shay nods. “I know. He hasn’t been himself either, but I think his pride and jealousy are getting to him. I’m sure if you two just  _ talk _ to each other-”

Keith shakes his head no. “I’ve tried, but he just ignores me in class! He sits with Paul now so I sit with Xander.”

They arrive at Shiro’s office and Shay stops him. “You two have been inseparable for nearly four years, I know you guys will make up. I have to head back to class now…good luck, Keith.” She gives him a quick hug then walks back down the hallway.

Keith sighs and approaches the door, but someone grabs his arm and drags him into a broom closet with him. He whirls around and is face to face with a middle-aged woman with a pointy chin and big, blue hooped earrings. “Who are you?!” Keith demands.

The woman chuckles as a pad of paper and a quill fly out from behind her. “I’m Luxia Loraine!”

Keith’s eyes widen in fear, remembering what Hunk’s parents said about her. She’ll probably twist every word he says into something that will make for a juicy story. Before Keith even has time to reply to her, she begins firing off questions. Most of them have to do with him bribing an older student to put his name in, but what catches his attention are questions about his feud with Lance.

“How do you know about that?!” Keith demands.

“Is it true you two are in a fight over your friend Katherine Holt?” Luxia asks.

Keith furrows his eyebrows in disgust. “What?! No!”

Her quick quotes quill writes furiously even though Keith has barely said anything. He peeks over to try to see what it has been writing, but the door flies open to reveal Shiro’s angry expression. “There you are! Come on!” Shiro exclaims as he grabs Keith’s arm, dragging him out of the closet. He brings Keith into his office where Plaxum, Rolo, and Antok are waiting with Ollivander. Keith smiles at Ollivander, remembering back to when he first sold Keith his wand. Ollivander returns the smile then turns to Plaxum, holding his hand out for her wand. She hands it to him and he runs his fingers across it.

“Yes…nine and a half inch rosewood,” Ollivander says slowly. He looks down the tip of the wand and nods. “Veela hair core from your grandmother.”

Plaxum smiles and nods at Ollivander, taking her wand back. Rolo hands his wand to Ollivander next, and he does the same process with his wand as he did to Plaxum’s. His wand is a twelve and a quarter inch ash with a unicorn tail hair center. Antok goes next and his wand is a ten and a quarter inch hornbeam with a dragon heartstring core.

Keith steps forward next and hands Ollivander his wand to look at. “Ah, yes…I remember this one very clearly. Thirteen and three quarter inch acacia wood with a Phoenix feather core. Its brother wand is actually one of Keith’s closest friends,” Ollivander shares. He hands Keith his wand back and pats him on the shoulder. Keith appreciates that he didn’t mention that there’s a third wand with a Phoenix feather from the same Phoenix (translation: Lord Zarkon’s wand).

Photographs follow and Luxia manages to push Keith up towards the front, much to his dislike. Most of the time she focused on taking pictures of Keith, but eventually, she moved on to the other champions.

Finally, they’re sent back to their common rooms and Matt meets up with Keith to hand him a note. Keith tries to ask him what it’s for, but Matt refuses to say anything. He opens the note and sees it’s a request for him to meet Matt in his office alone on the morning of November 22, just two days before the first task. Keith wonders what it could be for.

 

* * *

 

 

Life is moving slowly but stressfully for Keith these days. His first task is nearing and he has no idea what he’ll have to do, Lance still refuses to speak to him, AND, to top it off, Luxia published an article about the Triwizard Champions in which she left out Rolo entirely, spending four pages expounding Keith’s tragic past and attributing quotes to him about crying at night about his father’s death. The worst part of it was the section that he’s in love with Pidge and he’s battling Lance for her heart.

It could be worse…she could’ve picked up on Keith’s ginormous crush on Lance. If that had been the case, he’d write to Krolia, asking her if they could run away to live out the rest of their lives together - a foolproof plan because he knows his mom would be down with that.

Anyway, Keith’s taunted endlessly about it, but luckily Pidge doesn’t hold it against Keith and also finds the whole thing stupid. He spends most of his time in the library with Pidge, Xander, and Layla. Keith really only sees Hunk in Charms, Transfiguration, and Astronomy, but other than that, he spends his time with Lance. During a Hogsmeade visit, Coran slips Keith a note telling him to meet him outside Slav’s cabin at midnight with Lance’s invisibility cloak. Knowing Lance would never loan it to him now, he asks Pidge to get Lance to give it to her so Keith can use it.

Keith meets Coran outside under the cloak and he follows him and Madam Maxime deep into the Forbidden Forest where several dozen men, including Isa’s boyfriend Patrick, are trying to subdue four large dragons. Keith’s eyes widen in fear when he sees someone jump away from a line of fire. How could they handle dealing with these monsters?! They’re huge and terrifying! How does Isa’s boyfriend do this for a living?! Why would he want to do this?! Who the hell would want to go anywhere near these creatures?!

Wait a minute…

“Ah, Patrick! It’s so good to see you again!” Coran exclaims suddenly, getting Keith’s attention. “Patrick, this is the headmistress at Beauxbatons, Madam Maxime. Maxime, this is my favorite student back when he attended Hogwarts, Patrick Neilson.”

Madam Maxime smiles politely at Patrick. “It’s a pleasure. Now, what can you tell us about these magnificent dragons?”

Patrick chuckles. “Well, each dragon is a nesting mother, making them far more dangerous. The four champions will have to get past them for their first task.”

“Fascinating!” Coran exclaims. “Which breed of dragons do you have here?”

“Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, Swedish Short-Snout, and, my personal favorite, the Hungarian Horntail,” Patrick shares. “That one’s the most dangerous.”

Keith takes a step back to gather his thoughts. He really doesn’t want to fight a dragon for the first task. Why couldn’t it be something easy like something he’s learned in Transfiguration?! Maybe he should ask Krolia if she wants to run away…

Wait a minute…

Krolia! He has to meet Krolia in Matt’s office!

Keith dashes off back towards the castle but accidentally runs into Ranveig along the way. Luckily the invisibility cloak doesn’t fall off so Ranveig doesn’t see him. Keith turns and sees him continue through the forest, probably trying to investigate the first task for himself. Keith gathers himself together and quickly makes his way to Matt’s classroom. He walks in and, right on time, finds Krolia’s head sitting in the fireplace.

He smiles widely when he sees her. “Hi, mom.”

“Oh, it’s so good to see you, Keith! I miss you so much,” she says with a huge smile.

Keith kneels down by the fire and begins telling her everything that has happened. From Luxia’s article about him to running into Ranveig in the forest.

“You should be careful around Ranveig,” Krolia warns. “He used to be a Galra Phantom, but Zethrid eventually caught him. Zethrid was the best Marmorite in history so she’s at Hogwarts for a reason.” She pauses to think for a moment. “Maybe that dustbin incident was legitimate…”

“Are you saying someone might’ve been trying to stop her from coming to Hogwarts?” Keith wonders.

Krolia nods. “Bertha Jorkins was last seen in Albania which is where Zarkon was last sighted. He could’ve used her for information and killed her!”

Keith recalls back to the nightmare he had at Lance’s house over the summer about Migale and Zarkon talking in a house about Bertha Jorkins. He debates on telling Krolia about it but decides against it. He doesn’t want her to get involved in anything that would get her in even more trouble.

“Anyway, about the dragons! That should be interesting,” Krolia comments, changing the subject.

“Yeah, do you have any tips for me? I don’t know how I’m gonna get through it,” Keith says.

Krolia opens her mouth to reply, but the door to Matt’s office opens, startling the both of them. Keith whirls around, eyes wide with fear, but he relaxes when he sees it’s just Lance.

Wait… _ Lance?! _

He narrows his eyes at Lance. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Who were you talking to?” Lance wonders.

Keith turns around to the flames to see if Krolia is still there but she’s not. He turns back to Lance and stands up. “No one of your concern. Why are you here?”

“I had to return some books I borrowed from Matt,” Lance replies. “Shouldn’t you be with your champion buddies or getting some rest because the  _ champions _ need their beauty sleep?”

Keith’s breath hitches and he feels himself getting upset. He never thought he’d ever have to deal with Lance hating him again, but they’re back right where they started. Keith spots a  _ Kogane stinks! _ pin on the ground and snatches it off the floor then chucks it at Lance. “Shouldn’t you be acting like my friend?! Or are we just back to where we started?” Keith shoves past him, tears streaming down his cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HS AU Update: Still writing the next section, I don't know when it will be done - my goal is before the end of May? Who knows.  
> Cop AU Update: I am outlining the chapter right now and I've figured out the "bigger plot" within it, but I don't know how long it will be overall.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	8. The First Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first task nears and Keith is nowhere near prepared to face the dragons. He and Pidge work on a spell that should allow him to play to his strength of flying, but will it be enough to defeat a dragon? Or will there only be three champions for the second task?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter!
> 
> Enjoy~

As the first task nears, Keith, Pidge, Layla, and Xander research ways to subdue dragons but to no avail. Keith is terrified beyond compare and considers leaving Hogwarts, but decides against it in case someone makes him return to the foster home. Plus he wants to prove everyone who thinks he can’t do it wrong.

The day before the first task, Keith finds Rolo and hurries to catch up to him. “Hey Rolo!” he exclaims.

Rolo turns around and raises an eyebrow at Keith. 

Rolo tilts his head in confusion. “Excuse me?”

“Dragons are the first task. We have to get past dragons,” Keith explains. “The others must know by now and it wouldn’t be fair if you didn’t know either.”

Rolo eyes him suspiciously but nods after a couple seconds. “Okay, thanks for the tip.” He looks and sees Zethrid approaching Keith and takes that as a cue to walk away.

“Keith!” Zethrid exclaims, getting his attention. “That was very honorable of you to tell him about the dragons. It evens out the playing field.”

Keith nods. “Thank you, but I have no idea how I evened it out when I still have no idea how to beat a dragon!”

Zethrid pats his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Just play to your strengths.” She raises an eyebrow at him.

“What do you mean by-” Keith gasps. “Quidditch! Wait, I can’t bring my broom out there though.”

“No, but you are allowed a wand,” Zethrid counters. She doesn’t say anything else then continues down the hallway.

If Keith wants to beat the dragon, he’ll have to fly past it, but how is he going to get his broomstick? Pidge must know something. He makes his way to the library where he finds Pidge and Lance working together on a piece of paper. Once Keith walks in, Lance slams his book shut and looks at Pidge. “We can continue this later when we’re in better company.” He glares at Keith then leaves.

Pidge rolls her eyes and looks at Keith. “I hate it when you two fight. It’s really annoying.”

“Tell me about it. Anyway, I need your help with something,” Keith says, getting right to the point. “Do you know any summoning charms or a spell to make something appear?”

“Um, well there’s Accio which brings something to you,” Pidge says. “Is that what you mean?”

Keith nods. “Yes. I need it for tomorrow’s task so I can get my broomstick to me.”

“Oh! Then yeah that’s the spell you should use. Do you want to practice it right now?” Pidge asks. “We can practice with some books and papers before trying with something bigger.”

“Yes, thank you, Pidge,” Keith says gratefully.

Pidge sets up a few books and stands next to Keith with her wand out. “Okay, so you have to concentrate on the object you want to summon to you. It has to be crystal clear in your mind before you try to use the spell. I’ll demonstrate with my astronomy book.” She points her wand out at the book. “Accio astronomy book!”

The book shakes on the table for a second before flying towards Pidge. She quickly reaches up and catches it in her arms. “See?”

Keith nods. “Okay. I’ll try it with your potions book.” He points his wand at it. “Accio potions book!” The book shifts a bit and falls off the table but doesn’t come flying at Keith.

Pidge chuckles. “We’ll work on it.”

 

* * *

 

 

The morning of the task, Keith and the other three champions are led into a tent in the forest where they have to wait for further directions. Keith paces around nervously, tugging at the sleeves of his sweatshirt. It has his last name written on the back in green letters, green sleeves with two silver lines going down the side, and a hood. His hands begin to fiddle around with the fingerless gloves until he hears someone whisper his name outside the tent.

“Keith?”

He furrows his eyebrows in confusion for a minute until he recognizes the voice to be Pidge’s. “Yeah?” Keith whispers back.

“How are you feeling? Okay?” Pidge wonders. “The key is to concentrate. After that, you just have to-”

“Battle a dragon,” Keith finishes.

A few seconds pass by and she doesn’t say anything. Keith starts thinking she left until she steps into the tent and engulfs him in a tight hug.

Suddenly a bright flash of light comes from behind them and they split apart to see Luxia standing there with a man with a camera. “Young love! How stirring…if anything goes, unfortunately, today, you two may even make the front page!” she exclaims.

Keith glares at her and opens his mouth to tell her off, but Antok beats him to it. “You have no business being here,” Antok states sternly. “This tent is for champions and friends.”

Luxia looks at her floating quill and parchment then smiles at Antok. “No matter, we’ve got what we wanted,” Luxia says with a sly smile. The end of the feather brushes up against his cheek before she and the photographer walk to the other side of the tent.

“Good day, champions!” Shiro exclaims, greeting everyone as he, the other schools’ headmasters, Throk, and the Warden walk into the tent. The headmasters walk towards the champions while the Warden climbs up the center pole in the room to where a cannon is. “Gather ‘round, please. Now, you’ve waited, you’ve wondered and at last, the moment has arrived…a moment only four of you can fully appreciate.” He turns and looks at Pidge. “What are you doing here, Pidge?”

“Oh…um, sorry. I’ll just go,” Pidge says sheepishly. She gives Keith a sympathetic expression before leaving the tent.

Keith really wishes she could stay, but he knows she’d only get in trouble. He watches her leave before looking back at Shiro when he speaks again.

“Throk, the bag,” Shiro instructs.

Throk steps forward holding a small purple pouch in his hand. “Champions, circle around me. Miss Moreau, over here, Mr. Hamamoto.” He moves each of them around in a specific order. “And Kogane, Mr. Kogane, over here.” He grabs Keith’s arm and puts him next to Rolo. “now, Miss Moreau, if you will.” He holds the bag out in front of her.

Plaxum looks at the other three champions before reaching into the bag. She winces when she sees a little smoke come out, but she eventually pulls out a tiny green dragon.

“The Welsh Green,” Throk states.

She looks up at Madam Maxime and they begin whispering to each other. Throk then moves over to Antok. “Mr. Hamamoto.”

Antok reaches in without hesitation and pulls out a tiny red dragon. “The Chinese Fireball, ooh!” He moves over to Rolo and holds the bag out for him. “Mr. Dawson.”

Rolo looks at Keith then reaches into the bag to pull out a yellow dragon. “The Swedish Short-Snout, which leaves…” Throk turns to Keith with the bag.

“The Horntail…”Keith whispers to himself.

“What’s that, boy?” Throk asks.

Keith winces. “Nothing.” He hisses in pain when he reaches into the bag and pulls out a dark orange, very spiky small dragon.

“The Hungarian Horntail,” Throk says finally. “These represent four very real dragons, each of which has been given a golden egg to protect. Your objective is simple: collect the egg. This you must do, for each egg contains a clue, without which you cannot hope to proceed to the next task. Any questions?”

Keith looks down at the ground, breathing heavily. How the hell was he supposed to pull this off?! Even if he successfully gets his broom, who knows if he can outsmart the Horntail!

“Very well,” Shiro says, breaking Keith out of his thoughts. “Good luck, champions. Mr. Dawson, at the sound of the cannon, you may-”

Suddenly, the Warden sets off the cannon a the top of the pole, startling everyone. Rolo glares at Luxia, who grabbed onto him when the cannon went off. He shakes her off then approaches the entrance to the arena where the dragon waits for him. Keith hears the crowd chanting Dawson as Rolo pumps himself up before walking into the arena.

Keith sits down on one of the benches in the tent, waiting for his turn to face his dragon. He listens as the crowd reacts to the work of the three other champions. Occasionally there will be a burst of cheers or gasps depending on if something good or bad happened. He tries to stop thinking about the possibility of everything going wrong when he goes out there, but the thoughts don’t go away.

“Three of our champions have now faced their dragons, and so each one of them will proceed to the next task. And now, our fourth and final contestant,” Shiro announces.

Keith takes a deep breath and walks out of the tent, listening as the crowd starts chanting his name. He looks around at everyone in the crowd, trying to spot his friends but gives up when everyone goes silent. He looks out from the cave he emerged from and spots the egg sitting in the middle of a makeshift nest out of rocks with no Horntail guarding it.

Keith looks around in confusion, wondering why the dragon isn’t anywhere in sight. He starts walking towards it but dives to the ground when he hears a loud thud from behind him.

Stones crash from around him and he turns around to see the Hungarian Horntail looking down at him. She roars at him then spews fire in his direction. The crowd screams as Keith scrambles to his feet as he outruns the flames, making a break to hide behind a large rock. The dragon roars again and flies towards Keith, swinging her tail down by him again

The crowd gasps loudly as Keith begins sliding down the side of the rock formation. The dragon continuously swings her tail down to try to hit Keith while he struggles to hold onto the rocks and his wand at the same time. Keith feels himself starting to get overwhelmed by everything that’s happening. Eventually, the dragon lifts him up with her tail and tosses him across the arena, away from the egg. The dragon roars triumphantly as Keith struggles to get up off the ground.

Flames come at Keith again as he jumps behind a large rock to avoid being torched to death. He breathes heavily then looks up when he hears Pidge shouting. “YOUR WAND, KEITH! YOUR WAND!”

Keith points it up in the air. “Accio Firebolt!” he exclaims before turning to see the dragon flying at him. He scrambles away and hides behind another rock as the dragon creeps closer to him. He breathes heavily and peeks around the other side and spots his broom flying towards him. The dragon roars again then spew more fire. Keith presses his back up against the rock, silently hoping the flames don’t touch him. Once the fire stops he looks back around then, once it’s close enough, he jumps on his broom and flies away just before the dragon sends more fire at him.

The crowd cheers as Keith soars around the area, making a break for the egg. He dodges more fire and turns away from the egg, heading up towards the sky. Keith looks behind him to see the dragon struggling against the chain before it breaks.

“Oh, hell,” Keith mutters to himself as he dodges away from the dragon’s snap at him. He flies towards the professors and over their seats, the dragon hot on his tail. It smashes through some of the seats, causing the professors to jump away. Keith flies farther away from the arena with the dragon still following him. He looks back from time to time to see how close she’s getting but yells when he almost crashes into one of the Hogwarts towers. He dives down and away from her, narrowly escaping.

When he looks around, Keith doesn’t see her. He rounds another tower of the castle and screams when he sees the dragon. She uses her tail to knock him off his broom, sending him rolling down on a roof. He grabs onto an edge to stop his fall and sees the dragon flying around, looking for him. She perches herself on another tower and roars. Keith looks down and sees his broom below him.

Suddenly, the edge Keith was holding on to snaps and he falls down, barely grabbing onto another ledge below to stop his fall. The dragon hops onto the tower Keith is on and begins inching her way closer to him. Keith pulls himself up and grabs onto the end of his broom, trying to yank it towards himself. He pulls it free just before the dragon crushes the ledge he was on, sending him sliding down the roof once again. Keith screams as he free falls but manages to get on his broom and fly away once again. The dragon sends more fire at him, catching the end of his broom on fire. He continues flying, heading towards the bridge, but the dragon bites the end of his broom then crashes into the bridge, sending them both spiraling to the ground.

Keith grunts and steadies himself on the broom, heading back towards the arena. Once the crowd sees him, they begin to cheer loudly as Keith speeds towards the egg and snatches it off the ground. He lands beside it and holds it up triumphantly, earning even more cheers from the crowd.

Afterward, lots of people come up to Keith and congratulate him for doing a good job. As he goes to greet Layla and Xander, Lance suddenly runs up to him and hugs him tightly. “Oh my god, Keith! That was awesome!” Lance exclaims.

Keith grunts when Lance nearly knocks him over but hugs him back nonetheless. He releases Lance after a few seconds and looks at him with a confused expression. “Why are you talking to me all of the sudden?” he wonders.

Lance chuckles and wipes some blood off of Keith’s face. “When you and the dragon flew away and didn’t come back for a while, I started to panic, thinking you died or something. Then, when you came back, I was so relieved and realized I was being a jerk. I know you, Keith. You would never put yourself in that position just for attention. I’m sorry I’ve been treating you like this.”

Keith smiles at Lance. “Thank you. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, buddy,” Lance says with a smile, pulling Keith in for another hug. “You know that your method was the best and fastest of the other three.”

Keith pulls away and looks at Lance with wide eyes. “What?”

Lance nods. “Yeah, well, I mean the rest of them eventually did get the egg, but Rolo and Plaxum were charred a bit and Antok caused his dragon to step on some of her real eggs.”

Keith opens his mouth to ask more questions, but Shiro, Throk, the other headmasters’, and the other champions come to where he is. Rolo gives Keith a small smile, patting him on the shoulder in congratulations.

“Excellent!” Shiro exclaims. “All four of you got the golden egg. Now, each of your eggs contains the next clue about your second task which will take place in three months. Good luck and good job to all of you.” He smiles and claps for them before walking away with the other adults.

Lance tugs Keith’s arm and brings him to their other friends where they all shower him with praise and congratulations. Keith thanks Pidge for her help with the Accio spell, then they all make their way back to the castle. Lance walks with him most of the way to the Slytherin common room but breaks off when he, Delia, and Paul arrive at the Gryffindor common room.

Once Keith, Xander, and Layla get to their common room, a great celebration ensues. At one point Keith’s persuaded to open his golden egg, but only a garbled shrieking comes from it. Keith quickly closes it and everyone resumes partying. He notices that Reyna and Sophia are especially merry because they were able to successfully turn Xander into a giant yellow canary with the canary cream they got from Carlos and Ryland.

Keith turns in early, tired from the day’s events and writes a letter that he intends to send to Krolia before falling asleep, feeling like he’s on top of the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 should be up by the end of the week!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	9. The Yule Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the First Task, all Keith wants to do is rest, but that can't happen quite yet. He somehow has to manage to find a date to the Yule Ball. Lots of girls ask him, but there's only one person he wants to go with:
> 
> Lance
> 
> Sadly, Keith can never work up the courage to ask him. Will Keith be able to? Or will his heart be broken again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a day late
> 
> Enjoy~

Days later, while Keith and Lance are helping Coran tie up ten angry skrewts that have been messing with his plants, Luxia drops in and asks to interview Slav. She beams at Keith and asks him a few questions, but he ignores her, grabbing Lance’s hand to take him away. He hates the way his cheeks flush up when her quill moves as they hold hands. Luckily Lance pays no attention to it and classes Keith has with him get increasingly better. They sit with each other again in Divination and do their best to mess with Slav by making up ridiculous scenarios that make him think the world is ending.

After class, Lance and Keith meet up with Pidge and Hunk and head to the kitchens. They walk in and find hundreds of house mice-elves working. When they see the students, they immediately begin offering them food and tea. Keith raises his eyebrows, figuring these creatures are responsible for making the food appear on the tables in the Great Hall each meal.

“Keith!” a voice exclaims.

Keith looks and sees Chulatt scurrying over to him. “Chulatt! How are you?”

“Good! Chuchule and I work here now! I work for money now!” Chulatt exclaims happily.

Keith looks over and sees Chuchule sitting in a chair with her head in her hands. He leads his friends over to her, and Keith kneels down next to her. “Chuchule? Are you okay?”

“No!” Chuchule exclaims, glaring at Keith. “I miss Throk! I’m a disgrace!” She sobs into her hands.

Keith turns to his friends and shrugs, not knowing what to do. Lance steps forward. “Chuchule, Throk was awful to you. Shouldn’t you be happy to be away from him?”

“I’m happy to be away from the Morrisons! They are dark wizards!” Chulatt exclaims.

Chuchule shakes her head no. “Don’t say those words about your masters!”

“Keith is right, Throk is a bad man. He treated you terribly.”

Chuchule shakes her head no. “He’s a good m-man!” She sniffles and wipes the tears off her face. “Though, Vince Offer is a bad wizard. I don’t like him…” She trails off, almost as if she’s in a trance. After a couple seconds she snaps out of it then gets back to work.

Chulatt walks up to Keith and hops on the chair Keith is kneeling by. “Ignore her, she’s not used to this yet. I have to get back to work, but I promise to visit you soon!” She smiles widely at Keith before returning to making the food.

Hunk looks at the clock and gasps. “Keith! We’re gonna be late for Transfiguration!”

Keith nods and he and Hunk leave the kitchens to head to Allura’s classroom as Lance and Pidge leave to head to Astronomy.

Once Keith and Hunk arrive in the classroom and sit down, Allura walks in, looking slightly upset. He wants to ask her what’s bothering her, but he has to wait until class is finished. She goes through the period talking about a specific Transfiguration spell which entails the caster to turn a hedgehog into a pincushion. Since it’s somewhat difficult, Allura has them wait until tomorrow before attempting it themselves.

Towards the end of class, Allura stops to tell them about the upcoming ball Hogwarts will have. “I’m not sure if Coran or Thace has gotten the chance to inform you all yet, but the Yule Ball is quickly approaching. So, if you have a certain someone you would like to take, I advise you do it soon,” she instructs dully. “If you do not, well, that is on you. Sometimes things just do not work out as you anticipate and the person you ask says no.” She exhales and shakes her head. “Sorry, I am just upset right now. Class dismissed.” She begins shutting her books and putting them away.

Hunk and Keith exchange a confused expression then make their way up to Allura. “Professor?” Keith asks. “Are you okay?”

Allura turns to look at them. “I am fine, thank you.”

Hunk crosses his arms. “It doesn’t seem like it.”

Keith tilts his head slightly. “Did you ask him?”

“Keith, what are you talking about?” Allura wonders.

“Moony.”

Allura’s breath hitches and she looks away. “Perhaps I did but nothing has changed. If you will excuse me.” She nods at them then heads to her office.

Keith looks back at Hunk and they exchange a solemn expression before walking out of the classroom. Both boys knew better than to pester Allura about it any further. Though, Keith didn’t understand why he’d say no in the first place. Clearly, after all these years, he still loves her. Maybe there’s something else Keith’s missing.

Oh well, he’s got bigger things to deal with: getting a date.

Normally he’d boycott the entire thing, but since he’s a champion, he should find a date. Though the only person he’d ever want to go with is Lance, Keith doesn’t want to push Lance any further about this whole thing. Keith wouldn’t be able to stand if Lance stopped talking to him again.

Throughout the next few weeks, several girls ask Keith to the ball, but he declines each one. Most of them he doesn’t even know and the others probably were dared to ask him. Besides, his heart is set on Lance, but whenever Keith’s around Lance, he gets too nervous and continuously postpones asking.

Leading up to Christmas, Keith finds himself in the library more and more with his friends as their workloads of homework pile up. Allura has been more relentless than usual, but Keith can’t really be upset with her because of what she’s been dealing with. At least he understands her class well enough to keep up with the work.

Paul suddenly groans in frustration and slams his Potions book shut. “This is ridiculous! Why aren’t girls swarming to ask us to the dance?!” he demands.

Keith raises an eyebrow. “It’s not as fun as you’d think.”

“Still! If we wait any longer, we’re gonna wind up going with trolls,” Paul retorts, crossing his arms.

“You know, you could ask someone instead,” Lance says, looking up from his Astronomy book. “Ever think of that?”

Paul scratches his chin then looks at Delia. “Hey, Delia, you’re a girl…”

Delia looks up from her Potions book, clearly angry. “Good observation skills.”

“Come with one of us! It’s one thing for a bloke to show up alone, but for a girl, it’s just sad,” Paul says.

Keith senses the tension in the room rises up to ninety. He exchanges nervous expressions with Xander and Lance before looking back at Delia and Paul.

Delia stands up and glares down at Paul. “I won’t be going alone, because, believe it or not, someone’s asked me!” She slams her book shut in his face. ”And I said yes!” She storms out of the library, robe billowing out behind her.

Layla collects her things then stands up. She gives Paul a disappointed expression before following out after Delia. Paul looks and sees everyone staring at him. “What? She’s the one who overreacted!” he exclaims defensively.

“Paul, I think you’re going to be the one going with a troll if that’s how you talk to girls,” Lance says. He stands up. “I, for one, have a plan for this ball. Anyway, it’s getting late so we should head back to our dorms.”

Everyone packs up their stuff and goes their separate ways to the common rooms. Keith walks with Xander and they discuss how ridiculous their Potions assignment is before they drift asleep.

The next morning when Keith makes his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, he finds that the castle is decorated with singing suits of armor, icicles hanging from the staircases, and twelve large trees in the Great Hall. Clearly, it looks like everything is ready for the Yule Ball except for Keith.

Keith decides to ask Lance to the ball after breakfast. He quickly finishes so he can find Lance before he heads to Potions. As he rounds a corner, he hears Lance’s voice. Smiling, Keith steps around the corner and opens his mouth to call Lance’s name, but he stops when he sees Lance talking with Plaxum. Keith quickly steps back behind the corner to listen to their conversation.

“…and yeah, I know it’s a strange request, but I really-” Lance starts.

“Lance, I think it’s really clever and oddly sweet. Of course I’ll go with you,” Plaxum replies.

Keith covers his mouth in shock. Where the hell did this come from?! Why would Lance choose to go with Plaxum of all people?! Tears begin to well up in his eyes and he takes off running down the corridor as far away from Lance as possible. Allura was right…things just don’t work out as planned. He wipes his eyes and sits on a bench outside, away from where any student would go. Keith knows he’s missing Herbology, but he frankly doesn’t care. What was the point of anything anymore? After all this time…after all he’s been through with Lance, it still isn’t enough. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe Keith’s built up this fantasy where he and Lance can live together in love with each other, but clearly, Keith’s the only one who caught feelings.

What was the point of staying here? Hogwarts can’t really offer him anything at this point. It was used as an escape from the horrible foster home, but now that Krolia is back in his life, he doesn’t really need to be here anymore. What if he didn’t finish school? Well, it’d be okay for this year since Hogwarts has Rolo as its Triwizard champion. It doesn’t really need Keith for this…or anything in general.

“Keith?”

Keith jumps, startled. He turns around and sees Pidge standing behind him with a concerned expression on her face. Keith’s lip quivers again and tears begin to spill out so he turns around and cries into his hands. He senses Pidge sit down next to him and put her arm around him. “Keith, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Lance!” Keith sobs. “I-I wanted to go with him to the Yule Ball!”

He hears Pidge lightly gasp. “Wha - does this mean you…like him? Is this you confirming”

Keith sniffles and nods, turning to look at her. “You gonna make fun of me?”

Pidge shakes her head. “No! I mean this is great! I had a hunch since last year, but now I know I was right. Keith, why don’t you just ask him to go with you?”

“I can’t,” Keith replies, voice breaking.

Pidge huffs. “Why not?”

“Because he asked Plaxum.”

“The hell? Since when was he interested in _her_? I thought he’s been obsessed with Nyma?” Pidge wonders.

Keith rolls his eyes. “I don’t know, but I don’t see the point in going anymore.” He looks at her again. “You can’t tell anyone about this - especially Hunk. He’s too close to Lance.”

“I promise I won’t,” Pidge says. “Now, you can’t just not go to the ball. You’re a champion and I’m pretty sure you have to go. We need a plan to get Lance to regret not asking you to the ball. We need to make him jealous.”

Keith scoffs. “How are we going to do that when he’s going with Plaxum? She’s really pretty and I could never compete with her.”

“Not with that attitude! We need to make it seem like you’re interested in someone close to him,” Pidge says. She pauses to think for a moment. “Me! I’m the answer!”

Keith tilts his head in confusion. “How are you the answer?”

“Those articles Luxia has been writing. We use them to our advantage!” Pidge exclaims.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if other people get the wrong message?” Keith asks.

“That’s good. It’ll feed into the plan. Lance knows you and I don’t like each other like that, but if he sees this, it might strike something else inside him or make him realize he likes you too.” Pidge places her hand on Keith’s. “Keith, trust me. He feels the same…he just doesn’t know it yet.”

Keith nods. “Okay. I trust you.”

Pidge smiles and pats his back. “Great! We can talk details later. I also have what you missed in Herbology today. Come on, we better head to-”

“Ugh! Paul! Just leave me alone!” Delia exclaims suddenly from inside the castle.

Keith and Pidge jump up from the bench and hurry behind a pillar as Delia storms outside with Paul following quickly behind her. “Delia! Stop! Why are you getting so upset? You don’t have to lie to me about having a date. Come on, let’s just go together and-”

Delia whirls around and shoves him away. “You’re a prick! I have a date!”

“Then who is it?!” Paul demands.

“I don’t need to tell you that!” Delia yells.

Paul huffs angrily. “Fine! I didn’t even want to go with you in the first place! I just asked you out of pity!”

Delia yells in frustration and storms off past where Keith and Pidge are hiding. Pidge and Keith exchange a confused expression but continue on their way to their next classes.

At the end of Keith’s last class, he walks with Xander back to the common room and tells Xander about his and Pidge’s plan. Xander thinks it’s brilliantly thought out. Other than Pidge, Xander is the only person Keith trusted to tell about his crush on Lance. They decided to keep Layla in the dark, but it wouldn’t surprise Keith if she knew - she’s very perceptive. Keith and Xander continue discussing possibilities until Layla walks in with a very confused expression on her face.

“Layla? What’s wrong?” Xander asks.

She sets her stuff down and plops down next to Keith. “Paul just asked me to the Yule Ball.”

 

* * *

 

As the Yule Ball approaches, students grow antsier, but Keith finds optimism in this time because of Pidge’s foolproof plan. Girls still ask him to the dance, but he makes sure to tell them that he already has a date. When they ask who, he simply just smiles at them and walks away.

On Christmas day, Keith jolts awake and comes face to face with Chulatt. “Hey! Chulatt?”

Chulatt smiles widely at him. “Merry Christmas Keith! I have a present for you!” She hands him a bag and waits for him to open it.

Keith sits up and pulls out the paper from the bag then lifts out a couple pairs of fuzzy socks. “Oh, Chulatt! Thank you. My feet will be super warm now.”

“I’m glad you like them!” Chulatt exclaims. “I have to get back to the kitchen now, but I’ll see you soon!” She snaps her fingers and disappears.

Keith gets up and quickly gets dressed to head outside for an impromptu snowball fight before everyone has to get ready for the ball. Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Shay, Xander, Delia, and Layla agreed to play, but Paul elected not to join because he’s still pissed at Delia. He meets up with Xander and Layla in the common room and they’re wearing their Slytherin hat, gloves, and scarves as well.

They head outside and find Pidge, Hunk, Shay, Lance, and Delia waiting for them. Hunk and Shay have their Hufflepuff hats, scarves, and gloves on while Lance and Delia have their Gryffindor ones. Pidge is the only one wearing Ravenclaw ones, as expected. Once Lance sees the three Slytherin kids, he waves them over. “Okay! Now, we can’t really do house versus house since that wouldn’t be fair to Pidge,” Lance says with a smirk.

Pidge rolls her eyes. “Shut up. Okay, we could do girls against boys? Then again that wouldn’t be fair because the girls’ team is so overpowered.” She gives Lance a smug expression.

“What! We have Hunk!” Lance exclaims.

Delia crosses her arms. “I think it would be fun. Paul isn’t here so that’s a plus.”

Lance looks at her. “Delia, you can’t be mad at him forever.”

“Whose side are you on, Lance?! You can’t play both teams!” Delia retorts angrily.

“You both are my friends. I can’t pick between you,” Lance says.

Delia scoffs and looks away. “The moment you thought Keith betrayed you, you dropped him like he burned you.”

“Okay!” Keith exclaims. “That’s enough. Why don’t we just start the snowball fight?”

“Well, we’re already fighting,” Pidge comments. “Might as well put some snowballs into the mix.” She grabs some snow and chucks it at Lance’s head.

“Hey!” Lance exclaims. “No fair!” He grabs some and throws it back at her. “That’s what you-”

Keith chucks a snowball at him, interrupting him. “Oops.” He smirks at Lance’s shocked expression.

“Oh, it’s on now,” Lance says, slowly smirking. “FREE FOR ALL!”

Everyone makes a snowball and the snowball fight ensues. Keith laughs and runs from Lance as he chases after him, throwing snowballs at him. The others start throwing them at each other. Keith only stops running when Hunk launches a big one at him, knocking him down. He laughs loudly when Lance trips over a piece of ice and lands face first in the snow.

They continue the fight for a few more minutes until Delia announces that the girls better start getting ready. The guys decide to go get ready as well. Hunk and Lance head off to their common rooms and Xander and Keith head off to the Slytherin common room and begin getting ready.

Krolia sent over some new dress robes for him in honor of the Yule Ball. She told him that’s where she and Seth decided to finally go out with each other. Well, after much scheming and planning from Rosa, Luis, Lotor, and Narti. She thinks something might happen with him and Lance because of Pidge’s plan.

Keith pushes the thoughts away and sighs, giving up on fixing his bowtie. He’s been fussing with it for the past ten minutes, but it still looks crooked. Hunk should be waiting for him in front of Coran’s office. He and Keith agreed to meet there while Shay and Pidge decided to meet each other in front of Matt’s office before meeting up with each other in front of the Great Hall.

He walks down from his dorm to find Layla flattening down her puffy blue dress. She does not look happy in it.

“You doin’ okay Layla?” Keith asks with a smirk.

She turns and rolls her eyes when she sees him. “Oh, I’m living the dream, Keith! I didn’t wanna go to this stupid ball, but stupid Paul Franco had to ask me to go. You know, I think he did it just in spite of Delia because he’s got the biggest thing for her.” Layla sighs. “I hate this dress. It’s my older sister’s and she has the worst taste in clothes.”

“You’re not the only one who feels weird being in fancy clothes,” Keith replies dully.

Layla scoffs. “We both know the reason why you’re upset and it’s not because of the clothes.” She waves her hand dismissively at Keith. “I’ve known you these past two years, mister. We both know you’ve got a thing for a certain Gryffindor-”

“Okay! That’s enough of that,” Keith interrupts, holding his hand out to Layla. “Do you need help walking? Those heels don’t look comfortable.”

“Aww, such a gentleman!” Layla accepts Keith’s hand and they walk out of the Slytherin common room together and find Hunk and Paul waiting outside.

Paul’s jaw drops when he sees Layla in the blue dress. Layla’s not much of a girly-girl so seeing her all dressed up with makeup and her hair curled is a strange sight, but she still looks very pretty. “Whoa…Layla…you look-”

“Uncomfortable? Miserable? Because that’s how I feel,” Layla suggests.

“-beautiful,” Paul finishes, staring at her.

Hunk and Keith chuckle. “Alright, we’ll catch you two at the ball,” Hunk says as he and Keith wave goodbye to Layla and Paul.

They make their way over to the Great Hall where couples are starting to arrive. Keith sees plenty of different dress robes and dresses. Some…dated and others, well, unique. He’s not one to judge, but what were some of these kids thinking?

Keith’s thoughts are interrupted when Hunk gasps softly next to him. “Keith…I can’t do this. Shay - she’s too beautiful for me.”

“Hunk, what are you-” Keith starts, turning to where Hunk is looking but stops talking abruptly when he sees Shay and Pidge making their way down the stairs. He may be hella gay for Lance, but those two girls look absolutely stunning.

Shay catches Keith’s attention first. The top of her dress has a beaded flower design with the straps hanging off her shoulders. Keith concludes that must be the style (seems dumb in his opinion…what was the point of them if they weren’t there to keep the dress on her?) The bottom of Shay’s dress lays nicely on her hips but doesn’t hug them and the dress slowly flares out at the bottom. No pattern is on the bottom half of her dress past the waist. Shay’s hair is pulled up into a tight bun with a jeweled hair clip holding it in place from the back.

Keith looks over to Pidge next. Her dress is much simpler and shorter than Shay’s. Pidge’s dress goes to just below her knees. Keith didn’t expect her to wear a full-length dress - she’s too short for one anyway. She’s wearing a simple black dress that puffs out slightly past her waist. The top goes all the way up to her neck and clips right behind her neck, holding the dress in place. Pidge’s hair is curled nicely with a pretty silver clip to keep it out of her face.

Pidge smiles at Keith when she sees him staring. “Hi, Keith! I know you’re emo, but I didn’t know you’d drag me into it.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “You’re the one who made me come with you.”

“Yeah because you wouldn’t stop pouting about Lance going with Plaxum!” Pidge exclaims. “I have a plan so I don’t want to hear one complaint, got it?”

Keith sighs. “Fine.”

“Good.” Pidge turns to Hunk. “Hunk, you look really nice, right Shay?”

Shay doesn’t reply to Pidge because she’s stuck in a daze staring at Hunk. Keith wishes Lance looked at him the way Shay is looking at Hunk right now.

“Shay!” Pidge exclaims.

Shay jumps, startled. “Oh! Yes, Hunk looks very handsome.” Her cheeks flush slightly and she looks away, clearly embarrassed.

Hunk blushes too as he takes Shay’s hand. “I think you look good too, Shay. I mean you look beautiful! You look better than me! I mean-” Hunk groans, and turns away.

Shay giggles and takes his other hand. “Thank you, Hunk.”

Pidge clears her throat. “Uh, if you two are gonna make out, please don’t do it in front of us.”

Hunk sputters. “Wh-what?! We weren’t-”

Allura walks up to them, saving Hunk from anymore teasing. “Oh! There you are, Keith! Are you and Pidge ready?”

Keith furrows his eyebrows. “Ready? Ready for what?”

“To dance!” Allura exclaims. “It is a tradition for the three champions - well, in this case, four - are the first to dance! Did someone not tell you this?”

Keith clenches his teeth. “Nope.”

“Oh…well, now you know!” Allura exclaims. She looks off into the distance behind Keith and his friends and nods at someone before looking back at them. “Hunk, you may take Shay inside while Keith and Pidge line up with the others.”

Allura walks away to direct some students inside. Hunk and Shay say goodbye to Keith and Pidge before heading into the Great Hall. Keith glances around for the other three champions but stops once he lays his eyes on Lance.

Holy moly does he look hot.

His dress robes jacket is black, same as Keith’s, but his shirt and bowtie are both beautiful shades of sea blue that Keith knows will bring out Lance’s already blue eyes. Lance catches Keith staring and his face lights up. He leans in and says something to Plaxum before walking over to Keith and Pidge. Plaxum is wearing a tight blue mermaid-style dress that matches the color of Lance’s shirt.

“Hey! I didn’t know you two were going together!” Lance exclaims. “That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, well, Keith needed a date so he decided to ask me. I have his back when other people don’t pull through for him,” Pidge replies, crossing her arms.

Keith avoids looking at Lance, fearing his cheeks would flush up, or he’d do something stupid to make Lance upset with him again.

“Well…you sound bitter, but you look stunning Pidge. You almost match up to Keith here!” Lance exclaims with a smile. “Seriously Keith, someone should not be able to look this good in all black.” He reaches out and starts fiddling with Keith’s bowtie. “Did you style your hair back for this occasion? It looks good.”

Keith looks down and watches Lance’s hands slowly untie the bow and retie it, making it look much neater than before. Lance smooths it out and looks up at Keith’s face. Keith glances up at him and immediately regrets it. Those beautiful blue irises stare back at him, showing excitement and happiness.

Of course Lance would be happy tonight. He got a date that he claimed would help him get Nyma jealous. Keith doesn’t understand why he’s still so hung up on her when she’s clearly in love with Rolo. Keith also doesn’t understand what makes Nyma so great. What did she offer Lance that Keith couldn’t? Keith’s saved Lance’s life multiple times, comforted him when he’s sad, and defended him more times than Keith can recall.

It’s not fair!

“Keith?” Lance asks, breaking Keith out of his thoughts. “You good?”

“Uh, yes! Thanks for fixing my bowtie…” Keith trails off, cheeks heating up.

Lance chuckles and winks at him. “No problem, dude. I’ll see you in there!” He makes his way back over to Plaxum.

Keith watches him with a fond expression as he says something to her, making her laugh. Allura walks over to them and tells them to get in line for the procession. She waves Keith and Pidge over.

Pidge takes Keith’s hand and smiles at him. “You did well! I think it’s safe to say Lance likes you, but he’s too oblivious to realize it. I mean he basically did just flirt with you several times.”

“Pidge, I don’t want to talk about it right now. Can we just - whoa.” Keith’s jaw drops down slightly when he sees Delia Trang at the top of the stairs. Any sane person would stop and stare because - holy shit.

She’s wearing a dark red strapless gown that has plenty of ruffles billowing out at the bottom of the skirt. The top part hugs her nicely so it won’t slip off. Delia’s hair is curled immensely, almost as much as her dress is poofy. Keith’s thankful she’s here to show up Plaxum.

Delia picks up her skirt and carefully makes her way down the stairs. Keith smiles at her and offers his hand to her. “Hey Delia,” Keith greets.

“Hi Keith,” she says, slightly out of breath. “Walking in heels is not fun.”

Pidge scoffs. “You’re telling me! I love your dress by the way.”

“Thank you,” Delia says with a smile. “I wasn’t sure about it, but my other friends thought it would look great. Especially since I’m going with Antok.”

Keith’s eyes widen. “You’re going with-” He turns when Antok walks up to them and holds his arm out for Delia.

Delia winks at Keith and walks away with Antok. Keith looks at Pidge with wide eyes. “I never would’ve called that,” Pidge says. “How did I not see that coming?!”

Keith shrugs. “She kept it a secret. I don’t blame her after Paul practically tried to harass it out of her. He probably wouldn’t have believed her.”

“Or he would have made fun of her,” Pidge adds.

Keith nods in agreement then opens his mouth to say something else, but he stops when he sees Nyma and Rolo walking down the stairs. Rolo has on ordinary black dress robes, slightly less fancy than Keith’s. He has a rose pink bow tie to match Nyma’s dress. Nyma’s dress is a floor length gown that has one sleeve on her shoulder which holds the dress up. It’s not a very extravagant dress, but it flatters her nicely. It hugs tight above her hips then slowly flares out. Keith thinks it could be made of silk or some smooth fabric.

Pidge taps Keith’s arm and gestures over to where Lance and Plaxum are. Keith sees them whispering with each other and gesturing over to Nyma and Rolo. Before Keith can say anything else to Pidge about it, Allura comes over and ushers Keith and Pidge to where the others are.

“Okay! I need Plaxum and Lance up front, Antok and Delia behind them, Nyma and Rolo third, and Keith and Pidge bringing up the rear,” Allura instructs, moving them into place. “Alright, when you hear the trumpets, that is when you start walking through the doors.” She smiles at them and walks away.

Keith and Pidge fall into line behind Nyma and Rolo to wait for their signal to walk in. A few seconds pass before trumpets begin to sound and the doors slowly open. Lance and Plaxum walk through first and the rest follow through behind them. The rest of the students have formed a tunnel and clap as they walk in. Keith smiles at them and waves when he sees Hunk and Shay.

They soon arrive at the center of the dance floor and the music stops. Keith looks and sees Mr. Holt in front of the orchestra, waiting to cue them to start.

“Keith, take my waist,” Pidge orders quietly.

“What?” Keith asks.

“Now,” she says as the music starts.

Keith quickly puts one hand on her waist and takes her other hand in his as the music starts to play. The dance begins and Keith takes one step forward as Pidge takes one back then they take one to the side and repeat it in time with the music. They switch their arm positions every few beats, Keith finding himself relaxing as they get more comfortable with the dance. When the violins play staccato eighth notes up, Keith lifts Pidge into the air before setting her down gently when the rest of the guys do it as well. Pidge smiles at him when he successfully does it.

He returns the smile before looking at the other champions as they dance. Antok and Delia don’t seem to be talking to each other, but they seem very comfortable in each other’s presence. Keith doesn’t think he’s seen Delia smile like that in a long time. On the other hand, Nyma and Rolo are very close to each other and seem to be in a deep conversation. Occasionally Nyma will glance over at Lance, but she never catches him looking at her. He’s always close to Plaxum and adding in some extra dance moves to add to the mood. Keith feels jealousy bubbling inside him, but he comes back to reality when Pidge tugs on his arm.

Keith looks to where she gestures and he sees Shiro offer his hand to Allura. She looks at it wearily for a moment before nodding and accepting it. He leads her onto the dance floor and the rest of the professors clap for them. Shiro easily gets into the music and he whispers something in her ear which causes her to laugh. It’s nice to see she’s not thinking about Lotor right now.

Other students eventually join in the dancing, Hunk and Shay included. Though, Keith is surprised to see Paul drag Layla out there when he can see her lips moving quickly, probably protesting against it. Keith sees the Warden dancing with Laika off to the side and sees Zethrid sitting on a couch humming along with the music to herself before taking a swig out of a little canteen.

Keith looks in the other direction and sees Coran slowly sliding his way over to where Madam Maxime is standing. He nods in the direction and spins Pidge so she can see it too. She laughs at Madam Maxime’s confused expression when Coran gestures to the dance floor. Eventually, she gets the message and joins him.

Soon enough most of the students are dancing along to the music, all in sync with each other until a voice shouts into a microphone. “ARE YOU READY?!”

Keith and Pidge stop what they’re doing and turn to see a band on a stage on the other end of the room. Pidge chuckles. “It’s the Weird Sisters!” She drags Keith away from the gathering crowd so they don’t get trampled. “I’m not a fan of them, but I’ve heard Delia and Layla talk on and on about them.”

Looking closer at the band, Keith sees that they all have long hair and wear jackets made out of long black fur. He doesn’t want to know what animal it came from. His view is blocked when he suddenly sees Matt crowd surfing over everyone. “What the hell?! Look!” Keith exclaims.

Pidge laughs. “Not surprised about that!” She sits down. “He’s always wanted to do that.” Some other people sit down too, not really wanting to dance. Pidge and Keith watch as Layla makes her way over with Paul.

“I told you I didn’t want to do that! I warned you that I’d step on your toes!” Layla exclaims, plopping down next to Keith.

Paul crosses his arms and sits down, glaring at where Delia and Antok are dancing with each other. She seems to be having a blast, laughing and smiling whenever Antok spins her around. Keith looks around and spots Plaxum and Lance also having a blast with each other. He’s dancing up behind her as she dances on him from the front, facing away from him. Her hair is falling out of the updo it was in, her blue tips occasionally hitting Lance’s dress robes.

Keith bites his lip and turns away from them, not wanting to watch anymore. He looks back up when he sees Delia and Antok walk away from the crowd. Antok takes Delia’s hand and kisses it before walking over to where the drinks are. Delia giggles and twirls before she notices Keith and the others sitting down. Paul glares at her and turns away.

Delia walks up and sits across from Keith and Pidge, smiling widely. “Hot, isn’t it?” she asks. “Antok’s gone to get drinks. Would you care to join us?”

Keith opens his mouth to accept, but Paul speaks before he can. “We would not care to join you and Antok.”

Delia furrows her eyebrows. “What’s got him in a knot?”

“He’s a Durmstrang! You’re fraternizing with the enemy!” Paul exclaims.

Keith sighs and rubs his forehead, knowing exactly where this conversation will turn to.

“Paul, I don’t think-” Pidge starts.

“The enemy?! Who was it wanting his autograph?!” Delia retorts. “Besides, the whole point of the tournament is international, magical cooperation - to make friends.”

Paul scoffs. “I think he’s got a bit more than friendship on his mind.”

Keith turns and looks at Paul. “Dude!”

“What! Am I wrong?!” Paul wonders, eyes wide.

Delia stands up, appalled. “Well, if that’s the case then why don’t you go yell at Lance too while you’re at it. I’m sure he’d _love_ to hear it!” She storms off towards where Antok went.

“She’s got a point,” Layla says. “If Delia’s fraternizing with the enemy then so is Lance.”

“Lance’s fraternizing is all for show! He and Plaxum only went together to get Nyma jealous,” Paul says, crossing his arms.

“Wait, what?” Keith asks.

“Yeah. Lance went up to the Owlery to ask Nyma, but she told him that she already said yes to Rolo. He was crushed so I suggested he get someone else to go with to make her jealous. Lance befriended Plaxum so he asked her for help on the plan and she agreed,” Paul shares.

Layla suddenly stands up. “Are you going to ask me to dance at any other point tonight?”

Paul shakes his head no. “You can go with your friends, I don’t care.”

“Thanks, man!” Layla exclaims, patting his arm before hurrying over to some other Slytherin and Ravenclaw girls.

Keith shakes his head. “I can’t believe he’d do that. What does he even see in Nyma?”

“I don’t really know,” Paul replies. “I think he really started to fall for her after he saw how good of a Seeker she was.”

“But Keith’s better,” Pidge counters.

“Yes, but Keith’s also a dude.” Paul narrows his eyes and looks at the floor. “Actually, that doesn’t really matter to Lance. I guess I don’t know why he has an attachment to Nyma.”

Keith huffs and leans back in his chair. “I knew coming here was a mistake.”

“I’m with you there,” Paul agrees. “Though, I don’t like the fact that both of other champions from the other schools went with two of your friends. Maybe they have their own agenda so that’s why Plaxum agreed to go with Lance since he’s close to you. I already know Antok is just using Delia since he probably couldn’t get to Pidge.”

“I don’t think-” Pidge starts.

“No, you’re right,” Keith agrees, interrupting Pidge. “Why else would Plaxum agree to go with some fourth year from Hogwarts?”

Paul nods. “Now you’re getting it! You gotta tell Lance before it’s too late.” He motions to where he and Plaxum are. “Now’s your chance. She’s splitting off from him to go with her friends.”

Keith stands up and walks over to Lance. “Hey.”

Lance smiles at Keith. “Hey! Dude, you looked awesome on the dance floor! Pidge looked like she was having so much fun.”

“I’m surprised you noticed,” Keith retorts, “since you’re too busy being brainwashed by Plaxum.”

“What are you talking about?” Lance asks. “She’s helping me!”

“Helping you with what? Getting someone you never had a chance with?!” Keith wonders, crossing his arms. “Nyma isn’t interested in you. She likes Rolo.”

“You’re wrong,” Lance says. “She told me she would have said yes to me if Rolo didn’t ask her first. She said she felt bad! Besides, why do you care? You’ve got Pidge! How was I supposed to ask you for anything when you have her?!”

“You think I like Pidge like that? You think I’d pick her over you?” Keith questions. “Wow, you really don’t know me at all do you, McClain? Four years and you still haven’t figured me out.”

“How dare you?! I care so much about you, Keith. We’ve been through so much with each other. It’s not my fault you’re a locked up book! You push everyone away when shit goes awry.”

Keith shakes his head. “No, I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing that for fourteen years. You run away when stuff goes south. You abandoned me the moment you thought I betrayed you.”

“You’re still on that?! I thought we were past that!” Lance demands. He rolls his eyes and starts walking out of the room. “You’re something else, Keith. You’re a bucket of problems.”

Keith takes off after him. “What?! That’s what you think!?”

Lance whirls around and glares at him. “Yeah, that’s what I think!”

“You know the solution then, don’t you?!” Keith asks, stepping in front of him to block his path.

“Go on,” Lance urges.

Keith opens his mouth to retort but stops when he hears Delia yell.

“Next time there’s a ball, pluck up the courage and ask me before someone else does! And not as a last resort!” Delia yells.

Keith and Lance turn to see Paul and Delia glaring at each other. “Well, I mean, that’s just completely off the point.”

“Screw you, Paul Franco!” Delia exclaims, wiping tears from her face before storming off.

Keith turns to Lance. “Actually, no. If you can’t figure it out then everything we’ve been through means nothing.” He fights back tears. “You figure it out. I’m done trying.” A tear rolls down his cheek and he turns away.

Lance grabs his arm. “Keith, just tell me! Stop being difficult! What is it?!”

Keith pulls his arm away and glares at him. “You spoiled everything, Lance!” He looks and sees Pidge, Hunk, and Shay standing behind them. Keith feels the tears stream down his cheeks then he takes off running up the stairs, away from his friends…

Away from Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pictures are taking a bit longer than usual because they're more complicated than the other ones. The artist said they should be done by Tuesday so I'll upload them then. Make sure to check in in case they get done earlier than planned.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Please be kind in the comment section. The artist and I work very hard on this.  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist's Tumblr: [burtburt0614](http://burtburt0614.tumblr.com)


	10. The Egg Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the Yule Ball still has Keith pissed at Lance, but his friends think he should make amends. Well, who cares what they think Keith should do! Lance hurt him and that's all there is to that conversation. Besides, he's still got the screeching egg to deal with.
> 
> How will he ever figure out the next clue in time for the Second Task?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!
> 
> Enjoy~

Keith wakes up the next morning feeling absolutely miserable. He really doesn’t want to see Lance at all today, but sadly, most of his classes today are with Gryffindor including Care of Magical Creatures, which he has in twenty minutes. He slowly gets up and gets dressed, taking as long as possible until he has barely enough time to get to class. Keith snatches his Care of Magical Creatures book from his trunk then hurries out of the Slytherin common room. Once he’s out, he accidentally runs into Rolo. “Oh, I’m sorry, Rolo. I didn’t see you there,” Keith says sheepishly.

Rolo chuckles. “Not a problem, Keith. Um, I do have something to tell you.” He leans down to whisper in Keith’s ear. “If you’re having trouble with the egg…I think taking a bath is a great way to relax and think.” He smirks and stands back up. “The prefect’s bathroom on the fifth floor is a good spot.”

“Wait, what?” Keith asks, looking up at Rolo with confusion.

Rolo simply chuckles, lightly punching Keith’s shoulder before continuing back down the corridor, leaving Keith alone once again. He shakes his head of the thoughts for now, then heads outside where Care of Magical Creatures is. He gets there just in time before it starts, but instead of Slav being at the front of the students, it’s Coran.

Keith looks around for Layla and Xander to ask them why Slav isn’t here, but Lance walks up to him first. “Hey Keith,” he greets. “How are you?”

“Where are Xander and Layla?” Keith asks.

“Um, I think they’re over with Delia but-” Lance starts.

Keith brushes past him before he can finish and walks up to Xander, Layla, and Delia. “Hey guys, do you know why Slav isn’t here?” Keith asks.

“That’s what we were wondering too,” Layla says. “But I kind of like Coran’s teaching style. Look at what he’s showing us right now.” She points over to where a couple students are standing with Coran.

Now Keith finally notices the stark white unicorn standing there, tail occasionally swishing when one of the students brushes their hand across its fur. He goes to say something, but Damien saunters up to him and shoves a newspaper in Keith’s face.

“Take a look at this, Kogane,” Damien sneers.

Keith snatches it out of his hand and glances at it, seeing it’s a piece of  _ The Daily Prophet _ . He sees an article by Luxia Loraine that says Slav is a fearsome and irresponsible teacher. “Why the hell are you showing me this, Morrison?!” Keith demands.

Damien snickers. “Because I knew it’d piss you off. Where’s McClain? I wanna rub it in his ugly face too.” He wanders off to find Lance.

Keith bites his tongue in frustration. “I ought to put that prick back in his place. I fought a dragon for crying out loud!” He turns back to Xander, Layla, and Delia. “And won!”

“Keith, you know that won’t end well for either of you,” Delia says. “Besides, you can’t get into any trouble because it might affect your standing.”

Keith sighs. “I know, but I just hate the fact that he thinks he can just push me around - fine, but I need to tell Pidge and Hunk about this.”

Delia nods. “Okay, just don’t do anything stupid.” She smiles at him then turns back to Coran’s lesson.

The rest of the classes goes by pretty quick and Keith takes the opportunity to tell Pidge and Hunk about the article Damien showed him and they react like Keith did. Once their classes finish for the day, they head to Slav’s cabin to confront him but no one answers. Where could Slav be?

 

* * *

 

 

Later in the week, Keith walks with Pidge, Hunk, and Shay to Hogsmeade. Pidge invited Lance, but he denied it, saying he has too much work to do. Keith knows that’s a lie, but also knows Lance is distancing himself for Keith’s sake.

“I really think you should talk to Lance,” Pidge says, interrupting Keith’s thoughts. “He’s miserable.”

“Well, now he knows how I felt,” Keith retorts. “Plus I really can’t handle seeing him right now.”

“Wait, why not? I heard what happened at the Yule Ball, but-” Hunk starts.

“Hunk, don’t push it, please,” Keith says. “Just don’t.”

Hunk raises his hands up in surrender. “Fine! Fine.”

Keith gives Hunk a thankful smile as they approach the snow-covered stores of Hogsmeade. They immediately head towards The Three Broomsticks and take a seat, waiting to be served. It’s not very busy right now except for the occasional pairing of Hogwarts students together, probably on a date, and the group of vicious-looking goblins in the corner with a man in the middle of them. Keith makes eye contact with the man and recognizes him as Vince Offer. He tries to look away, but it’s too late, Vince is already on his way over to talk to Keith.

“Keith Kogane! It’s quite a pleasure to see you!” Vince exclaims.

Keith doesn’t greet him back; instead, he simply just glares at him, hoping Vince gets the message to piss off.

Sadly, he doesn’t and continues speaking anyway. “So, how far are you on the second clue? Need any help with the egg?” He gives Keith a sly smile.

Keith scrunches his nose in disgust. “No, thank you. I’m doing just fine on my own.”

Vince suddenly takes a knee next to Keith to whisper in his ear. “You should know that Throk has stopped coming to work entirely. A little outside assistance can go unnoticed under the table.”

Keith shoves him away. “I said no! Now, please leave me and my friends alone.”

He stands up and shrugs. “Suit yourself.” Vince makes his way back over to the goblins just as the door to The Three Broomsticks opens up again.

Luxia Loraine walks in, already boasting about a new article she plans to write. She claims to be able to destroy Vince Offer’s reputation. As she goes to talk about her article on Slav, Keith stands up angrily. “You’re a fraud!” he shouts at her.

Luxia turns and looks at him. “I beg your pardon?”

“Everything you said about Slav is false! He  _ is _ a great teacher and he is  _ not _ a danger!” Keith exclaims.

Pidge stands up as well. “Everything you write is completely bogus and has no facts behind it to back it up!”

Luxia glares at her. “You, young woman, stay out of this.” She looks Pidge up and down and her quill begins writing things down vigorously.

Keith gulps, suddenly realizing that Pidge might be next on Luxia’s attack list. Hunk taps Keith’s arm to get his attention. “Keith, we should go check on Slav,” he says.

Keith nods at him and the four of them quickly make their way out of The Three Broomsticks and back to Hogwarts. They approach Slav’s hut and hear someone crying inside. Hunk looks unsurely at Keith, Pidge, and Shay before opening the door to reveal Slav crying at his table and Shiro patting his back.

Shiro turns and smiles when he sees them. “Hello, kids.”

Slav looks up and gasps when he sees them. “What are you all doing here?”

“We’ve come to see if you’re okay,” Pidge answers.

“And to beg you to come back,” Keith adds. “You can’t let what that wretched woman wrote about you get to you. That way she wins!”

Shay nods in agreement. “If you come back, you’ll be showing her you don’t care what she has to say. Please, Slav.”

Slav looks between the four kids then back at Shiro who simply shrugs in return. He sighs then nods. “Okay, fine. I will come back, but only for you guys!”

Keith smiles widely then high fives his friends. “Yeah!”

“So, Keith, how are you coming along with the egg?” Slav wonders.

“I’m working on it,” Keith replies. He looks outside and sees it’s beginning to get darker out. “Actually, speaking of which, I should continue working on that. I’ll catch you guys later.” He walks out of Slav’s hut and makes his way back to the castle.

Getting questions about the egg from both Vince and Slav has to be a sure sign that Keith should take Rolo’s suggestion. He’s still a bit wary of him because he’s paired off with Nyma, but this is probably repayment for Keith telling him about the dragons.

Plus he’s keeping Nyma away from Lance so that’s always a plus.

Anyway, he starts heading towards the Slytherin common room to grab what he needs to take a bath, but he stops halfway, realizing he could get caught since he’s not a prefect. How could he sneak in undetected? He’d have to be - oh no.

_ Lance’s invisibility cloak _ .

Keith mentally sighs and changes his route to the library, knowing Lance is always in there when he wants to be alone and to get work done. He walks inside and makes his way towards the back until he spots a familiar scruff of brown hair. Keith peeks over Lance’s shoulder and sees him writing the Potions essay due tomorrow. “I’d switch around those two sentences. End the paragraph with something that can lead into the next claim,” he says.

Lance jumps, startled and turns. “Keith! Goodness, you scared me!” He looks back at the paper and nods. “That’s good advice, thank you. So, how was-”

“I need to borrow your invisibility cloak,” Keith interrupts, getting to the point.

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure!” Lance exclaims. “Anything for you!” He rummages in his bag until he pulls out it out. “I needed it to sneak into the Restricted Section to get some extra information on this potion I have to write about.”

“Thanks.” Keith takes it from Lance and begins to walk away, but Lance grabs his arm.

“Wait, are you seriously still not talking to me? Keith, come on.” Lance releases Keith’s arm and crosses his arms.

“Just stop, okay? I don’t want to deal with this right now,” Keith replies. He turns away and walks out, leaving Lance alone once again. Keith hurries to his common room to get what he needs. He grabs clothes, the golden egg, the Paladin’s Map, and slips the invisibility cloak over himself before leaving his common room to head to the fifth floor. He looks down the corridors before hurrying to the door and opening it, slipping inside.

Keith gasps as he looks around, taking the cloak off of him. It’s extraordinary. Piles of fluffy towels line the shelves inside, the walls are made of white marble, one of which holds a painting of a beautiful sleeping mermaid, and a swimming pool sized tub with hundreds of jeweled taps that spurt out various kinds of bubbles.

He turns to the doorknob and points his wand at it. “Colloportus.” He hears the knob click shut, locking it from the inside so it can only be opened from the inside. Keith turns back to the tub and begins to fill it up before undressing. Once the water is filled, Keith shuts off and steps into the water. He sighs as the hot water soothes his sore muscles then looks at the egg. “This is insane.” He grabs it and opens it up, but immediately shuts it when it screeches again.

“I’d try putting it in the water if I were you,” a voice says from behind Keith.

Keith jumps, startled then turns around and sees Moaning Myrtle floating. “Myrtle!” he exclaims.

“Long time no see,” she comments, floating around. “I was circling a blocked drain the other day and could swear I saw a bit of Polyjuice Potion.” She smirks. “I hope you’re not being a bad boy again, Keith.”

“Polyjuice potion?! I kicked the habit,” Keith replies. “Say, Myrtle, did you suggest putting it in the water?”

Myrtle flies over to Keith and into the water. “Well, that’s what he did. The other boy, the handsome one…Rolo.”

Keith picks up the egg and puts it under the water then looks at Myrtle.

She gestures at it. “Go on, open it.”

He opens it up and it begins glowing so he goes underwater himself. A voice begins singing:

 

_ Come seek us where our voices sound, _

_ We cannot sing above the ground, _

_ And while you’re searching ponder this; _

_ We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss, _

_ An hour long you’ll have to look, _

_ And to recover what we took, _

_ But past an hour, the prospect’s black, _

_ Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back. _

 

Once the voice stops, he comes back to the surface and coughs, shaking his head. His hair sticks on various spots on his face, but he ignores it. “Myrtle, are there Merpeople in the black lake?”

She snickers. “Very good. It took Rolo ages to riddle it out. Almost all the bubbles were gone…” Myrtle giggles and points down at the water.

Keith’s face flushes up and he scrambles to keep the bubbles covering himself. “Right, well, thank you, Myrtle. You’ve been a big help.” He grabs a towel and steps out of the water and quickly dries himself off before putting his extra set of clothes on. He shoves his old clothes in his bag and puts it over his shoulder before grabbing the egg, the Paladin’s Map, and his wand. He opens the map up and points his wand at it. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

The map comes to life and shows the location of everyone in the castle. Lance is still in the library, Hunk and Shay are in the Hufflepuff common room, and Pidge is in Matt’s office with Matt. Keith looks at the corridor outside the prefect bathroom to see if anyone’s there and once he concludes it’s clear, he points his wand at the door and says, “Alohomora.”

The door unlocks and Keith puts the cloak over himself then steps outside. He continues looking at the map as he approaches the staircase but stops when he sees Throk inside Thace’s office. Shocked by this, Keith accidentally steps on the trick stair, getting his foot stuck and dropping both the egg and the map. He sees from the map that the Warden is coming so he quickly snatches the map up but leaves the egg. “Mischief managed,” Keith mutters just before the Warden snatches the egg from the ground.

He opens the egg and the egg begins to screech. “Ah! PEEVES!” he yells, shutting the egg.

Suddenly Thace appears from around the corner. “Someone’s been in my office! I want you to-”

“That’s enough, Thace,” Zethrid suddenly says, rounding the corner. Her mad eye points at where Keith is and he immediately knows she can see him. She takes the egg from the Warden. “If Peeves had anything to do with this, I surely will get to the bottom of it.”

“But-” the Warden starts.

Zethrid holds her hand up to silence him. “Shall I tell Shiro you’re roaming the halls dealing with Peeves instead of looking for students breaking curfew?”

The Warden’s eyes widen in fear. “No ma’am!” He hurries off down the corridor.

Thace huffs in annoyance and looks at Zethird. “Ingredients to make a Polyjuice Potion were stolen from my stash.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Zethrid responds. “Good night, Thace.” She sends him away then, once he’s gone, she turns to Keith. “Kogane, I know you’re right there.”

Keith sighs and removes the cloak from himself. “Professor, I-”

“Who did you see in Thace’s office? I know what that piece of parchment is, Keith,” Zethrid says.

“I saw Throk,” he replies. “Which I don’t understand because Vince Offer told me he’s stopped coming to work.”

Zethrid’s eye widens in shock. “Odd things have been going on lately. Do you mind if I borrow the map?”

Keith nods and hands it to her. “Do you know how to use it?”

Zethrid smirks. “I know the creators very well. Thank you, Keith.” She pats his shoulder. “You know, you’re a very sharp boy. Have you ever considered a profession as a Marmorite?”

“I can’t say that I have, ma’am,” Keith replies.

“Well, think about it. Now head off to bed, okay?” Zethrid pats his shoulder again before walking away.

Keith heads to bed with the thoughts of the egg song and Zethrid’s suggestion swirling in his brain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Announcement: Due to the amount of stress in her life right now, the artist will be taking a summer-long hiatus before returning to this AU and the Cop AU. She hopes to return in June, but we'll see how she feels by then. So, from now on, there won't be any drawings to go with the chapters. I will leave the ones up from before, but there won't be any new ones. Sorry if this ruffles anyone's feathers, but mental health is more important than this.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Also, a special thank you to my new [beta reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/) for helping out!
> 
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	11. The Second Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After solving the mystery of the egg, Keith finds himself at the black lake getting ready to jump in to find something he lost. He has no idea what that could be, but the fact that Lance is nowhere to be found isn't helping. Sure, he's still mad at Lance, but his support goes a long way.
> 
> Where could he be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally on summer vacation! WOOT WOOT!!!
> 
> A big thanks to my [beta reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/) for helping out!
> 
> Enjoy~

The next day, after classes are finished, Keith heads to the Owlery to update Krolia on what has happened because he knows she’ll want to know all the details. After that, Keith finds Hunk, Shay, and Pidge in the Great Hall working on homework and tells them everything he’s found out, starting off with who he saw in Thace’s office then to the egg song. Hunk and Keith decide that Zethrid probably was hired to keep an eye on Thace while Throk keeps an eye on Ranveig. When they begin discussing the song, Pidge nods along as Keith recites it.

“Okay, let’s break this down logically,” Pidge says. “Say the first line again.”

Keith sighs. “ _ Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground _ .”

“The black lake,” Hunk pipes in. “That’s obvious.”

“If they can’t sing above the ground, that means it’s the merpeople down there,” Shay adds.

“ _ And while you’re searching ponder this; we’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss _ ,” Keith continues.

“I have no clue what that could mean,” Shay says. “What would you miss?”

“I mean I’d miss Red, but that seems too obvious,” Keith replies.

“Maybe a person,” Pidge suggests. “It could be your mom.”

“But Krolia isn’t here,” Hunk counters.

“Next line,” Pidge instructs.

“ _ An hour long you’ll have to look and to recover what we took _ ,” Keith recites. “ _ But past an hour, the prospect’s black, too late it’s gone, it won’t come back _ .”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Hunk comments. “So, you’ve got an hour to look for whatever they took and if you don’t find it, it’s gone forever?”

“That won’t happen,” Pidge says firmly, standing up.

“When was the last time you had to hold your breath underwater for an hour, Pidge?” Keith wonders. “This is impossible!”

“We need to do some research,” Pidge says. “And we need to hire some additional help.”

“Who are you-” Keith’s eyes widen in realization. “No. I refuse to let him help.”

Shay furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “Who are you talking about?”

“Keith, he’s better at problem-solving than any of us,” Pidge replies.

“They’re talking about Lance,” Hunk tells Shay.

Keith rolls his eyes. “Fine! But I’m still pissed at him!”

Pidge smiles. “Thank you. Now, he should be in the library.” She leads them out of the Great Hall where they run into Paul. “Hey Paul! Do you know where Lance is?”

“Actually, I was just going to ask you guys where Delia was,” Paul says. “I looked in the common room and in the library, but I can’t find her anywhere. Lance told me he’d be studying with her in the library, but neither of them was in there when I went to check. Someone told me they were summoned away by Professor Quinn. She wouldn’t tell them why she needed them.”

“Weird,” Hunk comments.

“Well, thanks anyway Paul,” Pidge says. “We’ll see you later at the Second Task!”

They wave goodbye and make their way into the library to begin looking through books that could offer some help, but they can’t seem to find anything. Keith eventually falls asleep on one of the books and is woken up by Pidge who tells him to get moving because he has to be there in ten minutes. She tells him they figured out something then they head outside to where the second task is taking place.

The four of them hurry down to the lake where everyone is set up and Hunk slips something into Keith’s hand. Keith looks down at it and sees it’s crumpled up seaweed. “Is this gillyweed?” he asks. “Are you sure about this?”

Hunk nods. “Absolutely.”

“It’ll last for an hour?” Keith asks.

“Eh, most likely,” Hunk replies.

“Most likely?” Keith questions.

“Well, there is some debate among herbologists as to the effects of freshwater versus saltwater,” Hunk shares.

“You’re telling me this  _ now _ ?!” Keith demands. “You’ve gotta be joking!”

“Keith, it’ll work,” Pidge interjects.

“Well, you’re more help than Lance was. Where the hell is he anyway?” Keith wonders, looking around.

“I thought you were mad at him,” Hunk comments.

“Well, yeah, but it’d still be nice to see him here,” Keith replies. He shakes his head and continues forward and walk across the dock to where the stands are set up. Keith hears the crowd cheering then waves goodbye to Hunk, Shay, and Pidge as they go and find their seats. Keith joins up with the other champions as Shiro begins to speak.

“Welcome to the second task!” Shiro exclaims. “Last night, something was stolen from each of our champions - a treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win, each champion only needs to find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough.”

Keith takes a deep breath and steps forward to the edge of the dock when the other champions do as well. Zethrid suddenly seizes Keith’s arm and whispers in his ear, “Put that in your mouth.”

Keith nods at her as Shiro continues talking. “Except for this: they will have one hour to do so,” Shiro shares as Keith shoves the gillyweed in his mouth. “After that, they’ll be on their own.”

Keith begins to gag on the gillyweed, the sour taste not agreeing with his stomach. He grips onto a pole so he doesn’t fall into the water before time starts. Zethrid smacks his back so he stops choking. Keith coughs and immediately wishes he were anywhere else but here.

“You may begin at the start of the canon,” Shiro says as the cannon goes off.

The other three champions dive into the water, but Keith still continues to struggle with the gillyweed. Zethrid finally shoves him into the water to get him going. Keith continues to struggle, yelling as he feels something pulling at the sides of his neck. He inhales, expecting his lungs to fill with water, but he’s shocked when he realizes he can breathe. Keith runs his fingers below his ear and feels gills. Then looks down at his feet as they begin to web together, allowing him to swim better in the water. He looks at his hands and sees that they’re webbed as well.

Keith smirks to himself and takes off through the water, zigzagging through the plants and rocks on the lake floor. He arrives at a cliff and peers down it before swimming into the dark abyss. Keith swims along with some fish before coming up on some tall seaweed, hearing the faint sounds of singing. He swims through the seaweed, following the sound of the music. Occasionally, he’ll hear something zip past him, but he doesn’t stop to check what it could be.

Someone screams from a few feet next to him and a grindylow swims past him, nearly knocking into him. Keith narrows his eyes and decides to follow the creature in the direction it went. Soon enough, he comes upon a large gateway and pillars leading up to where four unconscious people are tethered to the ground by seaweed. Keith immediately recognizes as the first person as Lance followed by Delia, Nyma, and a girl who must be Plaxum’s younger sister.

Keith swims up to Lance and cups his face in his hands, studying his face. His eyes are shut and they look puffier than normal - along with everything else about his face. Every few seconds a couple of air bubbles will escape through his mouth, signaling that he’s still alive. Keith strokes his cheek then swims down to his feet and begins to untie him from the seaweed.

The merpeople around him screech when he does this but they don’t start attacking him. Suddenly a flash of red light comes from next to him and he sees Nyma’s seaweed snap in half. Keith looks over and sees Rolo with a bubble covering his face. He grabs Nyma’s arm and points to his watch with his wand, telling Keith time is running out.

Keith nods at him then watches as he swims towards the surface. He pulls out his wand and aims it at Delia’s seaweed, but three of the merpeople screech and aim tridents at his throat. “But she’s my friend too!” Keith reasons.

The merperson snarls at him. “Only one!” She and the other two merpeople screech again then swim away.

Suddenly a loud growl comes from behind Keith and he turns to see a giant shark head coming up to him. Keith scrambles out of the way as Antok bites onto Delia’s seaweed and begins to swim away with her. He looks around and silently scolds himself for being careless, for he could’ve been out with Lance already. Keith swims back up to Lance and grabs his arm, beginning to swim up towards the surface. He looks back at where Plaxum’s sister is then around to see where Plaxum herself is.

Seeing as though she’s not coming and that Keith can’t just leave the poor girl there, he takes his wand and sends a blast of magic at the seaweed, releasing her. He grabs her arm and begins to slowly swim up with her and Lance. It starts getting harder and harder to breathe, the gillyweed beginning to wear off. Keith looks at his hands and sees the webbing beginning to fade and his feet turning back into regular feet.

He continues pushing through until he feels something grab his foot and yank him back down. Several merpeople try to pull Keith back towards the water, preventing him from going to the surface. Keith kicks at them, trying to shoo them away, but they don’t stop. He grunts and shoves Lance and Plaxum’s sister towards the surface while he deals with the merpeople.

They begin to bite and scratch him, trying to drown him until Keith takes his wand and blasts them away. Keith remains there, paralyzed as the gillyweed completely wears off. He looks up and sees Lance and Plaxum’s sister break to the surface as the clock chimes. Keith feels himself wanting to pass out, but he works up the strength to mutter the spell, Acendio, to send himself flying out of the water and onto the dock.

“Keith!” Shiro suddenly exclaims, coming to his aid. The crowd cheers loudly when they see that Keith has come back safely.

Keith coughs and sputters, trying to get the water out of his lungs as Hunk and Pidge hurry over to put a towel around him. “You’re alright,” Shiro reassures him.

“Go get him another towel!” Pidge orders.

“I want all the judges over here now!” Shiro exclaims, standing up to go find them.

Pidge takes another towel from Hunk and puts it around Keith’s shoulders as Plaxum walks over to him with her sister in tow. “Keith! You saved Florona! You saved my little sister even though she wasn’t yours to save!” Plaxum exclaims, kneeling down in front of Keith. “My little sister! Thank you!”

Keith opens his mouth to tell her it was no big deal, but she grabs his face and kisses him on each cheek before he can say anything else. Pidge snickers from behind him as Plaxum walks away with Florona.

“Keith!” Lance exclaims, running over to him, grabbing his shoulders.

“Lance, ow!” Keith shouts.

“Are you alright?! You must be freezing!” he exclaims, pulling off one of his towels to put around Keith. “Dude, you saved my life and Plaxum’s sister’s life.”

Keith smiles at him. “I had to.”

Lance hugs him tightly. “I think you did amazing…my hero.”

“I finished last, Lance,” Keith says, hugging Lance back.

Lance suddenly releases him and kisses the top of his head, earning a startled yelp from Keith. “Next to last! Plaxum never got past the grindylows.” He scrunches up his nose and pulls a beetle out of Keith’s hair then tosses it away. “Ew, how long was that there?”

Keith tilts his head in confusion but doesn’t ask any questions as Shiro walks over once again. “Attention!” Shiro exclaims to attempt to get the crowd to quiet down. He points his wand at his throat to make his voice sound louder. “ATTENTION!” The crowd finally quiets down. “The winner is Mr. Dawson!”

The crowd cheers for him and Keith sees Rolo hug some of his friends. “Who showed innate command of the Bubble-Head charm,” Shiro continues. “However, seeing as Mr. Kogane would have finished first, had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. McClain but the others as well, we’ve agreed to award him second place!”

Keith’s jaw drops down and he turns to his friends with a wide smile. “Yes!” Hunk exclaims. He and Pidge high five each other then hug Keith.

“For outstanding moral fiber,” Shiro continues.

He lists off Antok and Plaxum as third and fourth then everyone makes their way back to the castle. Keith walks with his friends but stops when Throk pulls him aside. “Congratulations, Kogane…fine achievement.”

“Thank you,” Keith says, walking with him.

“See you later, Keith!” Pidge shouts at him as she heads off with their other friends.

“I’m sorry we haven’t spoken. After all, your story is one I’ve heard so many times,” Throk comments. “It’s quite remarkable, really, and tragic of course. I’m sure your father would be proud of what you accomplished today.”

“Throk!” Zethrid exclaims. “Not trying to lure Kogane into one of the Ministry’s summer internships, are we? The last boy who went into the Department of Mysteries never came out!”

Keith raises an eyebrow when Zethrid’s jaw twitches and her tongue comes out for a split second before going back into her mouth. Throk tilts his head and walks up to her, eyeing her closely before walking away with a shocked and terrified expression on his face.

Zethrid narrows her eyes at him. “And they say I’m mad!” She takes a swig of whatever the hell she puts in her side canteen and walks away as well.

Keith looks in her direction with a confused expression before heading to the castle to tell his friends the strange encounter he just had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got A's on 2/3 of my exams! I'm still waiting for the third one, but I feel pretty good about it!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	12. Meeting with Krolia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things between Keith and Lance have gotten significantly better thanks to the Second Task. Overall, Lance makes Keith happier and it was only a matter of time before Keith forgave him.
> 
> Not to mention Keith finally gets to see his mom so his spirits couldn't be any higher than this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't remember when I said I'd be posting this. So I guess I'm either sorry if it's late or happy that it's early!
> 
> Big thanks to my [beta reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/) for helping me format this chapter!
> 
> Enjoy~

In the aftermath of the Second Task, Keith finally decides to let things go with Lance and forgive him. Seeing that he was the thing that the merpeople deemed Keith would miss the most, he couldn’t stay mad at the poor boy forever because Keith really can’t live without Lance in his life. Along with this, Keith receives an invitation to meet Krolia in Hogsmeade later today, which makes him extra happy.

During Potions class, Keith hears a group of his fellow Slytherins giggling over a column in Luxia’s  _ Witch Weekly _ . One of the girls hands it to him to look at and he reads it, discovering it’s about Pidge apparently “toying” with “the famous heart of Keith Kogane.”

Keith chuckles at it and slides it over to Pidge who skims over it. “ _ I don’t think we should do this anymore, Keith. I’m sick of people giving me crap _ ,” she reads from the article.

“How is she getting those exact quotes? It’s like she’s got someone spying on us,” Keith says.

Pidge furrows her eyebrows. “I don’t know, but I’ll get to the bottom of it. We should-”

“Ahem!” Thace crosses his arms and glares at them both. “Is my class interfering with your social time?” Neither Keith nor Pidge respond. “That’s what I thought. Kogane, come up here and finish your work.” He snaps his fingers and points to a chair at one of the front tables.

Keith winks at Pidge then gathers his things and plops down at the front table, quickly getting back to work on his essay. When he gets halfway done, Ranveig suddenly walks into the classroom and briskly makes his way over to Thace. Keith looks at them then back at Pidge who simply shrugs in response.

“Thace, there’s a problem,” Ranveig urges. “My upper arm-” He begins lifting up his sleeve, but Thace suddenly grabs it and shoves it back down.

“Shh! We’ll discuss this later,” Thace growls in response, glaring at Keith who quickly turns back to his essay. “Class is dismissed early today. I have some business to attend to, but I expect all of your essays completed by next class.”

Keith collects his things and rejoins Pidge, telling her what he heard Ranveig say about his upper arm. Pidge nods along. “Interesting. I’ll ask Matt about it during Astronomy…maybe he knows something. I’ll see you later, Keith.”

“Bye Pidge!” Keith exclaims, parting ways to head to Transfiguration. He’s not too concerned about this right now since he gets to see his mom tomorrow. Nothing could crush his spirits knowing he’ll get to talk to her in person.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning Keith wakes up with a huge smile on his face. Today’s the day Krolia said she’d meet him and his friends at Hogsmeade. He jumps out of bed and rummages around in his trunk for some warm clothes, his scarf, and his gloves. Keith quickly dresses in them before hurrying out to meet his friends in front of Matt’s office. He finds Hunk, Shay, and Pidge already there. “Hey, guys! Where’s L-”

Keith yelps when someone suddenly wraps their arms around him. “Surprise attack!”

Keith turns his head and smiles when he sees Lance. “Good! We’re all here.”

The five of them begin making their way to Hogsmeade with the rest of the students, but Keith stops when he sees something black run past out of the corner of his eye. He smiles when he sees Tomlynx, Krolia’s animagus, staring back at him. Keith nudges Lance and Pidge and begins following where Krolia leads them and she takes them to the Shrieking Shack where they first met her two years ago.

Krolia shifts back into her human form and immediately hugs Keith. “Oh, sweetie, I’ve missed you so much!”

Keith hugs Krolia back tightly. “I’ve missed you too, mom.”

They hug for a few seconds longer then release each other. Krolia turns and smiles at the others. “It’s lovely to see you all again as well, but I don’t think I recognize you…” She points at Shay.

“We haven’t met!” Shay exclaims. “I’m Shailene Clark, Shay for short.” She holds her hand out for Krolia to shake.

Krolia smiles and shakes Shay’s hand. “I’m Keith’s mom, Krolia Kogane. Keith has mentioned you a few times, but mainly to say that Hunk over here is infatuated with you.”

Hunk gasps and slugs Keith. “ _ Dude! _ ”

Keith snickers and gives him a thumbs up. “You’re welcome.”

“I need a hug!” Lance complains.

Krolia turns and smiles at him. “I couldn’t forget about my godson!” She hugs Lance and kisses his forehead.

Pidge looks around the room with her eyebrows furrowed. “Please don’t tell me you live here. I can talk to my brother and we can help you get to my house or-”

Krolia releases Lance and turns to Pidge. “Oh, no, that’s not necessary. I bounce between here and my old, childhood house. Lotor helped me set it up…had to pull a few strings - Shiro had to talk to Kolov-” She shakes her head and gestures for everyone to sit down. “Never mind, what’s new with all of you?! I’m dying to know. Did you know that Lotor is actually a very boring person? Had to practically drag him to do any fun when we went here.”

“Who was your partner in crime?” Pidge asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Rosa usually, but Keith’s father was surprisingly fun to get into trouble with.” Krolia smirks and leans back.

“Wait, weren’t you Slytherin’s Seeker when you were here?” Shay wonders. “I think I saw your name on a trophy.”

Krolia nods. “Yes, I was. Let me tell you about my favorite game against Gryffindor…”

Keith and his friends listen to Krolia talk about her time at Hogwarts, occasionally asking her questions about the professors and her friends. Eventually, the topic of conversation moves to what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, first the outcome then the conjuring of the Dark Mark. They debate on whether Chuchule or Vince Offer was more likely to have conjured it. Hunk and Lance say Chuchule since she’s the one found with the wand, but Keith, Shay, and Pidge aren’t convinced.

“Well, Throk was ruthless in his crusade against Zarkon,” Krolia shares, “and because of that he was chosen as the next Minister of Magic.”

“Wait, he was the Minister? What happened to have Iverson take his place?” Pidge wonders.

“His son was convicted as a Galra Phantom,” Krolia reveals. “He had a short trial and was imprisoned in Beta Traz where he later died. After that, Throk lost everything, including his job as Minister. He probably thought catching another dark wizard could set his career back on track.” She furrows her eyebrows in thought.

“Mom, what are you thinking?” Keith asks.

“I’m just confused as to why he would have his mouse elf save him a seat then never come to take it. Whatever, since I can’t really find out anything for myself and I’m sure Lotor won’t want to help…Lance, I think you should write to Isa and ask her about her boss,” Krolia instructs. “Maybe she knows something.”

Lance nods. “Will do! And we’ll make sure to tell you anything we find out.”

“Thank you,” Krolia says with a smile. “Now you kids better get going, alright? I’ll see you all again when the time is right.”

Keith and Lance each hug Krolia one last time before parting ways with her and making their way back to the castle. Hunk and Shay split off to head back to the Hufflepuff common room and Pidge heads off for the Ravenclaw common room.

Before Keith can head towards the dungeons, Lance grabs his arm and stops him. “Hey, I um…” Lance starts. “I just wanted to…” He sighs. “What I’m trying to say is-”

Keith smiles and pulls Lance in for a hug. “It’s okay, I think I understand. We’re good.” He hugs him for a few seconds longer then releases him. “Good night, Lance.” Keith waves goodbye then heads to the Slytherin common room. He falls asleep and has a dreamless night, the first time in a while.

* * *

 

 

The following morning, Keith goes with Lance to the Owlery to send a letter to Isa. Asking her various questions, but not specifying who they are about. Lance includes something so Isa can figure out who they’re asking about, but he says he can’t tell Keith since it’s a McClain secret.

Either that or it’s something really dumb that Keith would make fun.

Next, they head down to the kitchens to pay Chulatt a visit and ask her if she and a couple other house mice could send food to Krolia. Chulatt and the other house mice are happy to see and serve them except for Chuchule who is sitting in a corner, filthy, miserable, and drunk from butterbeer.

Lance walks over to her to see if she needs help, but she bats his hand away. “M…my master n…needs me…” She hiccups. “Needs my help in keeping his…his secret…deepest secret.”

“What secret?” Lance asks. “Chuchule?”

She shushes him then slumps over, falling asleep. Another mouse elf walks over to Lance, ushering him away from her while a couple others apologize, clearly embarrassed by her behavior.

“Lance, we gotta head to Care of Magical Creatures,” Keith says. “We don’t have time for this.” He looks at Chulatt. “Thanks again, give my mom my best.”

Chulatt nods and waves when Lance and Keith walk out. The two boys head outside and begin chatting as they approach Slav’s cabin. “You know, Pidge has been receiving hate letters for supposedly breaking your heart. I only saw them because someone dropped one on her desk during Transfiguration,” Lance shares.

“What? We weren’t even a thing!” Keith exclaims. “I mean at first it was just fun to pretend to mess with people, but she got sick of girls threatening her after the Yule Ball so we decided to stop.”

Lance opens his mouth to reply, but Slav begins talking before he can. “Today we will be learning about Nifflers! Can anyone tell me what a Niffler does?”

Keith looks at Lance then turns to Slav to raise his hand. “They’re attracted to shiny things so goblins would keep them to burrow for treasure. They have a little pouch that allows them to hold a lot of items.”

Slav nods and smiles at Keith. “Correct! Ten points to Slytherin. Now, I have buried gold around my hut before class. Each of you please come up here and choose a Niffler to find all the gold you can. The student to find the most wins a prize.”

The kids eagerly go up and pick out a Niffler then begin searching for gold. Keith tries to ask Lance more questions, but he’s too invested in trying to find the most gold. He gives up trying to get answers out of Lance so he begins trying to find gold himself. By the time class is done, Keith didn’t find very much gold.

Luckily, Lance did and he eagerly accepts the prize of an extremely large slab of chocolate from Honeydukes. “Wow, chocolate  _ and _ a ton of gold! I call this a-” Lance starts but stops when all the gold suddenly disappears from his hand. “What the hell?!”

“Lance, it’s Leprechaun gold,” Keith says, tugging on his sleeve. “That stuff disappears. Now come on, we gotta find Pidge and ask her more questions.”

Lance huffs. “Pretty sure Luxia Loraine wrote an article about it! She’s gonna be pissed when she finds out I told you about this.”

Keith ignores him as they make their way to the library where Pidge and Hunk are studying something for Divination. “Pidge, why didn’t you tell me people were giving you grief for breaking my heart?”

Her jaw drops down and she looks at Lance. “You snitch! Well, figures Keith would get you to spill, he is a Seeker after all…”

“Now’s not the time for stupid jokes, Pidge,” Keith scolds as he sits next to her. “How is Luxia getting some of the information she’s writing about? Does she have someone bugged?”

“That’s impossible within Hogwarts,” Pidge says then she stands up. “I gotta go.” She grabs her things and walks out of the library without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did lower the number of chapters that would be in this book! Who knows if it'll go back up, but for now it's at eighteen!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	13. The Pensieve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once the third task nears, the champions are called together to hear about what will be expected of them during it. It'll take place at night in a large hedge maze obstacle course with the Triwizard cup in the center.
> 
> To add to the stress, Keith has another dream about Zarkon and Migale in a house. Perhaps talking to Shiro about it is a good idea...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I was trying to finish the cop chapter before I posted this, but I really couldn't wait any longer (not to mention the end of the cop chapter is frustrating me so I needed a break)
> 
> Anyway, as always, a big thank you to my [beta reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Enjoy~

One evening after Easter, the champions are called down to the fields to hear about their next task. Keith learns that it will take place in a large hedge maze obstacle course with the Triwizard Cup at the center. Out of the three tasks, this has to be the most dangerous one in Keith’s opinion. Sure the dragon one was terrifying and almost drowning in the Black Lake…

Hmm…maybe all three are equally as dangerous!

Anyway, on Keith’s way back toward the castle, Antok hurries up next to Keith, tapping on his shoulder. “Keith! I have a question for you,” he says.

Keith stops walking and turns to Antok. “Uh, what’s up?” Keith asks unsurely. Why would Antok want to talk to him?

“You are friends with Delia, right?” Antok wonders.

Keith nods. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“Is she romantically involved with her friend Paul?” Antok asks.

“Wh-what? Why would you ask - no, they aren’t! They haven’t talked to each other in months,” Keith replies.

Antok sighs in relief. “Okay, thank you, Keith.”

Keith opens his mouth to ask why Antok wanted to know, but he sees someone stumble out of the Forbidden Forest. Taking a closer look, Keith recognizes the man as Throk. He’s shabby, ill-looking and seems to be talking to himself. Throk moves his head around sporadically as if he’s paranoid someone’s following him. He talks to a couple trees but once he realizes they’re trees, he stumbles away. Keith and Antok exchange a concerned expression before slowly walking over to him.

Once Throk sees Keith, his eyes widen and he stumbles over. “B…Bertha…Jorkins wa…was m-my f-f-fault! Th-the Dark…Dark Lord…stronger.” He reaches out to grab Keith’s shoulder, but Antok pulls him away. “I…must s-see…Sh-Shiro…”

“Keith, you fetch Shiro. I will stay here with him,” Antok instructs.

“Yeah, okay,” Keith agrees, hurrying up to the castle. He rushes to where Shiro’s office is, mumbling the password. He watches the golden gargoyle statue slowly turn up, revealing a staircase. Keith runs up the stairs and pounds his fist on Shiro’s door. A few seconds pass before Shiro opens the door.

“Keith? What’s wrong?” Shiro asks.

“Throk’s outside mumbling about something! He said he needed to see you,” Keith shares quickly. “He didn’t look so good.”

Shiro gets up from his desk and motions for Keith to follow him out of his office. They rush back down to where Keith last left Antok with Throk, but when they get down there, they find Antok stunned on the ground and Throk nowhere to be seen.

Keith looks around in confusion. “He was just here! I-”

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” Ranveig suddenly yells from behind Keith and Shiro. “Treachery! You’ve hurt my champion!”

Shiro and Keith turn around and see Ranveig running over with Coran and Zethrid following quickly behind. Coran frowns at Ranveig. “The Headmaster did no such thing!” he exclaims.

“Shiro didn’t do anything! We found him like this!” Keith retorts.

“Keith, that’s enough,” Shiro interrupts. “Coran, will you please see that Keith makes it safely back to his dorm?”

Coran nods. “Yes, sir.” He motions for Keith to follow him back to the castle.

Keith sighs but doesn’t protest as he and Coran walk up the hill together. “Antok and I were just walking back from the champions meeting about the third task when we saw Throk come out of the trees. I left to get Shiro and then Antok was just like that!” Keith exclaims. “Why would Throk do something like that?”

“I don’t know, Keith, but you have to be careful when associating with foreigners like Antok. Ranveig did some really bad things back when he was a Galra Phantom and would do anything to make sure Antok wins the Triwizard Tournament,” Coran warns as they approach the Slytherin common room. “I expect you to remain here all night, okay? I don’t want to have to tell the Warden to keep an eye out for anything.”

Keith nods. “I promise I won’t leave. Thanks for walking me back, Coran.”

Coran smiles. “You’re welcome, my boy! See you in class!” He walks away as Keith says the password to the common room.

He heads up to bed and falls asleep immediately, finally realizing how tired he is.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning after Throk attacked Antok, Keith finds Lance after breakfast and tells him to come with him to the Owlery so he can write a letter to Krolia, updating her on what happened. On their way there, Keith tells Lance about what happened with Throk and Antok and he can’t believe Throk would attack a champion like that. He also has no clue why Throk would be wandering around the Forbidden Forest that late in the night.

Keith writes the letter to his mom and goes to approach Blue to give it to her, but he stops when he hears voices approaching the Owlery. Lance and Keith freeze, listening to the conversation. Two female voices seem to be deep in conversation about blackmailing someone. The girls round the corner and stop in their tracks when they see Lance and Keith looking at them.

“Reyna? Sophia? What are you two doing here?” Keith wonders, confused.

“We could ask you two the same question,” Reyna retorts, eyeing them warily.

“Well, we asked you first,” Lance counters.

The four students eye each other, but no one reveals why they’re up there. Keith gives Blue the letter and releases her as Sophia gives another owl a letter.

Reyna crosses her arms. “How about none of us speak of this ever again?”

Lance nods. “Deal!”

They each exit the Owlery and go their separate ways. Keith looks at the time and grabs Lance’s arm. “Pidge and Hunk should be getting out of class right now. We should ask Zethrid if she saw anything on the Paladin’s Map last night.”

“Good idea! We’ll fill Pidge and Hunk in on the way,” Lance says as they hurry down the hall.

The two pass the Charms classroom where Hunk and Pidge are just walking out of. Keith motions for them to follow him and Lance the opposite way. Hunk says goodbye to Shay as Pidge hurries over to Lance and Keith. As they walk to Zethrid’s classroom, Keith fills them in on what happened last night.

Both are as confused and surprised as Lance was.

Once they arrive at the classroom, they find Zethrid writing on a piece of paper at her desk. Keith nods and Zethrid motions for them to come in without looking up. “What can I do for you four today?” Zethrid wonders, finally looking up at them.

“Did you see anything on the Paladin’s Map last night? Maybe it showed where Throk went,” Keith suggests.

“I thought that too, but I’m afraid he wasn’t anywhere on the map,” Zethrid shares. “Which seemed very odd to me because, based on what you told Shiro, he wasn’t in any state to escape quickly.”

“You mean Apparate, right?” Pidge wonders. “But that’s impossible on school grounds unless Shiro allows it.”

Zethrid nods. “Precisely, Pidge. That’s why I’m just as dumbfounded as you lot. However, I advise you all to be careful, especially you, Keith.” She glances over where the map is. “Do you mind if I keep it for a tad bit longer?”

Keith shakes his head no. “Go ahead.”

“Thank you. Now you all should head to class before you’re late!” she exclaims, waving at them as they walk out.

After the uninformative but helpful meeting with Zethrid, Keith stays on high alert the rest of the week, not wanting to risk anything happening before the third task. Classes go normally, nothing too stressful happens - except Thace managing to pile even more homework on them. Seriously, how does the guy manage to get away with this? It doesn’t seem fair!

Anyway, Krolia’s response arrives in the mail and she also warns Keith to be careful because obviously, someone very dangerous is at Hogwarts who may be after him and his friends. She also tells him to prepare well for the third task, telling him to get as much help from his friends as he can.

Keith takes his mother’s advice to heart and asks Hunk, Pidge, and Lance to help him with different charms he might need to use during the third task. They oblige and take turns each night in the library helping Keith perfect some defensive and offensive charms that might be useful. Keith even goes as far as to asking Professor Holt for some assistance to which he graciously gives.

Several days later in Divination, Slav drones on about different readings and what they could mean. Keith, not caring about this at all, dozes off due to the heat in the classroom and the droning of an insect near his head. A couple times Lance tries to swat it away but it keeps coming back. Keith gives up on caring about it and continues to drift off.

He dreams of flying on an owl through the sky, soaring through the clouds, eventually reaching a house. He flies through the window and witnesses Zarkon yelling at Migale. “ _ You incompetent fool! You had one job! _ ” he yells.

“ _ M-my lord…I- _ ” Migale stammers.

“ _ No! He is dead now! That is that! _ ” Zarkon interrupts. “ _ It doesn’t matter…soon I will have Keith Kogane dead and ready to feed to Nova. _ ”

“ _ Y-you are not mad? _ ” Migale wonders.

Zarkon is silent for a moment before yelling, “ _ Crucio! _ ”

As Migale screams, Keith wakes up screaming as well, a shooting pain going through his forehead. The entire class goes silent and looks at him, wondering what is going on. Keith, pushing through the forehead pain, grabs his stuff and storms out the door, quickly followed by Lance.

Keith charges towards Shiro’s office, silently thanking Lance for not asking any questions. He spits the password out and stomps up the stairs, still feeling the effects of the pain in his forehead. They stop outside the door when they hear voices arguing with each other. Keith recognizes them to belong to Shiro, Iverson, and Zethrid.

“A man has died here, Mitch,” Shiro says. “And he won’t be the last! You have to take action!”

“I won’t! In times like these, the wizarding world looks to its leaders for strength, Takashi,” Iverson reasons.

Shiro scoffs. “Then, for once, show them some!”

“The Triwizard Tournament won’t be canceled!” Iverson exclaims. “I will not be seen as a coward.”

“Surely that’s what’s right, no matter what others think,” Shiro says.

“What did you say?! What did you say to me?!” Iverson demands.

“Excuse me, gentlemen, it may interest you to know that this conversation is no longer private,” Zethrid announces.

Keith and Lance take that as their cue to walk inside. Iverson smiles when he sees the two of them. “Keith! Lance! How good to see you two again.”

“We can come back later, Shiro,” Keith says.

“Oh, that’s not necessary, Keith,” Shiro denies. “The Minister and I are done. I’ll be back in a moment!” He turns to Iverson and gestures to the door. “Minister, after you.” Iverson leads Shiro and Zethrid out of the room, the door shutting behind them.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Lance asks, finally speaking.

Keith sighs. “It was Zarkon. He was mad about someone being dead then said it didn’t matter because I’d soon be fed to his snake. Then he cast the Cruciatus Curse on Migale and that’s when I woke up screaming.” He walks over to Shiro’s pet Phoenix, Black, and holds his hand out to her. She nuzzles against his hand, cooing slightly.

“When you screamed, I felt something in my head too, but it wasn’t as severe as yours,” Lance shares. “Do you really think you’re going to die?”

Keith shrugs. “I hope not, but I have no idea how he’d do it seeing as though he sounded like crap. Plus I thought he was gone so how could it be true?” He furrows his eyebrows when he notices a half opened cupboard. Keith motions for Lance to walk over to it with him.

Lance opens it further and they see a basin floating there containing something silvery that is swirling around in what appears to be water. “The heck is this thing?”

“Beats me,” Keith responds, pulling out his wand to poke at it.

Lance peers closer at it, eventually touching it with his nose then falling in. Keith opens his mouth to yell, but Lance pulls him in as well. Keith looks around, silver surrounding him before both he and Lance land in a courtroom among a grave audience. Lance and Keith freeze, looking around to see if anyone yells at them, but no one seems to notice or acknowledge them. Keith reaches out to poke the person next to him, but his hand goes right through them.

No one can probably see them.

“Keith, look!” Lance exclaims pointing next to him at a slightly younger Zethrid and an old Alfor. “It’s Zethrid and the old headmaster!”

Keith opens his mouth to respond but closes it when Ranveig is suddenly brought into the room and strapped into a chair in the center. The room goes silent as Throk stands up to speak. “ Ranveig Korsman, you have been brought from Beta Traz at your own request to present evidence to this council. If your testimony proves consequential, the council may be prepared to order your immediate release. Until that time, you remain in the eyes of the Ministry as a convicted Galra Phantom,” Throk reads. “Do you accept these terms?”

Ranveig nods. “I do, sir.”

“What do you wish to present?” Throk asks.

“I have names, sir!” Ranveig exclaims. “There was a…a Rosier! Evan Rosier!”

“Mr. Rosier is dead,” Throk replies.

“Dead?”

“Yeah, took a piece of me with him though, didn’t he?” Zethrid whispers to Alfor, pointing at her mechanical eye.

“I-I didn’t know,” Ranveig says.

Throk sighs. “If that’s all the witness has to offer-”

“No! There was Rookwood! He was a spy!” Ranveig announces.

“Augustus Rookwood? Of the department of mysteries?” Throk wonders.

“Yeah! He passed information to You-Know-Who from inside the ministry itself,” Ranveig reveals.

“Very well, the council will deliberate,” Throk says. “In the meantime, you will be returned to Beta Traz.”

“NO!” Ranveig protests. “Please! I have more! Thace Slater is one!”

Alfor stands. “The council is very much aware you have given evidence on this matter. Thace Slater was indeed a Galra Phantom and prior to Lord Zarkon’s downfall, turned to spy for us at a great personal risk. Today he’s no more of a Galra Phantom than I am.”

“It’s a lie!” Ranveig exclaims. “Thace remains faithful to the dark lord!”

“Silence!” Throk yells, hitting his gavel repeatedly. “Unless the witness possesses any name of genuine consequence, this session is over.”

Ranveig smirks. “I heard about one more. I know for a fact this person took part in the capture by means of the Cruciatus Curse of the Marmorite Luis McClain and-”

“The name! Give me the name!” Throk exclaims.

“Throk Rezkir…Junior,” Ranveig reveals with a smug expression.

Suddenly Throk Rezkir Junior begins to run, but Zethrid stands up and hits him with magic, immobilizing him. He falls into the center of the court and the entire crowd is in an uproar. Some guards seize Throk Junior.

“Hands off you pathetic little - oh hello father,” Throk Junior greets with a maniacal expression towards Throk.

Throk looks at him with disgust. “You are no son of mine.”

Throk Junior begins to yell and protest as the picture begins to fade away. Soon enough, Lance and Keith are back in Shiro’s office, looking at the basin once again. The boys yelp when they see Shiro looking at them.

Shiro chuckles at them. “Curiosity isn’t a sin, but you should be careful.”

“What is that thing?” Lance asks as Shiro closes the cupboard.

“It’s called a Pensieve,” Shiro answers. “It belonged to Alfor and allows the user to see small things they’ve already seen. Most of these are Alfor’s memories stored in these containers. I’ve searched and searched for some small detail that I might have missed that could explain why all these terrible things are happening, but every time I get close to an answer, it slips away! It’s quite maddening.”

“Shiro, what happened to Throk’s son?” Keith wonders.

“He was sent to Beta Traz,” Shiro answers. “I remember hearing about it and when I went through the memories, I could tell it destroyed Throk to do it, but he had no choice because the evidence was overwhelming. Why do you ask?”

Keith looks at Lance then back at Shiro. “I had a dream about him over the summer before school. In the dream, I was in a house and Zarkon was there, but he wasn’t exactly human. Migale was there too and Throk’s son.”

Shiro nods. “Have there been other dreams like this?”

“Yeah, always the same,” Keith reveals.

“Shiro, do you think what Keith’s seeing is actually happening?” Lance asks.

“I do,” Shiro says honestly. “Zarkon is probably near and very dangerous. The three recent disappearances of Bertha Jorkins, Throk, and a muggle named Frank Boyce could be traceable to Zarkon.”

Keith thinks about this, not wanting to ask any further questions, but he looks at Lance when he speaks again. “Shiro, what happened to my father? I heard he was put under the Cruciatus Curse.”

“That’s a question that should be answered by Luis himself,” Shiro replies, patting his shoulder. “Now, you two should be off to class. I hope this was helpful and thank you for informing me. And Keith? Good luck on the third task.”

He waves to both boys as they walk out of the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only five more chapters! I don't know how I feel about being over halfway done with this AU...I'm proud yet sad it has to end. Any guesses to what I'll work on next? xD
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated.  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	14. The Final Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The third and final task is finally here, but Keith still has a few more spells to learn from his friends before he's ready to take on the maze. During the third task he'll face some new and some old creatures and even some he'd never thought he'd ever face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Beta Reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/)
> 
> A Note from the Artist:
> 
> Hey guys, ninja here. I apologize for the very long hiatus. The world has thrown almost everything it could at me and I would like to take this time I have to thank the author and one of you here in the comments for understanding and caring. I was very close to dropping a lot of things and people in my life because I was angry and frustrated with what was going on and the people who caused someone I cared deeply for to pass away. However, I remembered something they told me before they left this world, “don’t you ever stop talking to the people you love and care deeply for. You will regret it when you realize what you’ve done.” I plan on starting up again on the drawings for this and the cop au soon. This au I will start again in the next book. For the cop au I hope to start again the next chapter. I’d like to thank the author again for putting up with me and being the only person who has kept me sane and smiling almost everyday since I started my hiatus, thank you my dear friend, and thank you guys for understanding no drawings for these last few weeks, I look forward to returning soon

Keith and Lance make their way out of Defense Against the Dark Arts to head to the library to meet with Pidge and Hunk to work on some final spells with Keith before the final task tomorrow, but they stop when they hear Ranveig’s and Thace’s voices down the hall.

“It’s a sign, Thace,” Ranveig says. “You know what it means as well as I.”

The two come around the corner and stop when they see Lance and Keith. Ranveig glares at Keith then walks away from Thace. Lance tugs Keith’s arm and they both start walking away as well, but Thace stops them. “Kogane! McClain! What’s your hurry?” He pulls them back then looks at Keith. “Congratulations, your performance in the black lake was marvelously inspiring! Gillyweed, correct?”

Keith gulps, not knowing why Thace is being so nice all of the sudden. A part of him thinks Thace is being sarcastic, but Keith better not treat it as so. “Yes, sir,” Keith replies.

“Ingenious! A rather rare herb gillyweed is…not something found in your everyday garden,” Thace says. He pulls a small vial out of his pocket and shows it to Keith. “Nor is this! Know what it is?”

Keith narrows his eyes at it, having no idea what it could be. “Bubble juice, sir?” he asks.

“Nope, McClain?” Thace wonders, looking at Lance.

Lance shakes his head no. “It’s Veritaserum. Three drops of this and You-Know-Who himself will spill his darkest secrets,” Thace shares. “The use of this on a student is unfortunately forbidden, but if you ever steal from my personal stores again, my hand might just slip over your morning pumpkin juice.”

“We didn’t steal anything,” Keith counters.

“Don’t lie to me, Kogane. You’re lucky enough to be in my House so I won’t dock any points,” Thace warns. “Gillyweed might be innocuous, but boomslang skin…lacewing flies.” He shakes his head. “You and your friends are brewing a Polyjuice Potion and I’m going to find out why. Now head to class.”

Keith and Lance hurry away from Thace, not wanting to be yelled at any longer. Once they’re far enough away, the two boys stop and look at each other. “Did Hunk steal the gillyweed for me during the second task?” Keith asks.

Lance shrugs. “I have no idea! I was unconscious! I don’t actually remember much of that night if I’m being honest…”

“Whatever, but who would be brewing a Polyjuice Potion? I haven’t seen anyone cause a distraction in any class to steal anything and the students are too smart to risk doing it past curfew,” Keith says.

“It doesn’t matter right now, Keith. You need to finish preparing for the task tomorrow,” Lance says, grabbing his arm to bring him to the library. “I’ll tell Hunk and Pidge about what we saw in the pensieve later, but we have to work on perfecting the spells Pidge, Hunk, and myself picked out for you.”

“Are you going to include the part about your dad?” Keith asks.

Lance shakes his head no as they walk to where Pidge and Hunk are reading, waiting for Keith and Lance to arrive. Once they see them, they collect their things and hurry over. “Okay, Matt said we could use his classroom to practice the spells. I’ve picked out a couple I think would be useful, but I can only conjure one of them successfully,” Pidge says.

“I picked out one too! It’s useful if things chase you,” Hunk adds.

Keith nods. “Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the help.”

Pidge leads them to Matt’s classroom where he’s sitting at his desk grading papers. He smiles at them when they enter. “I moved the desks aside so you guys would have more room,” he says, “and set up some training dummies I found in dad’s classroom.

“Thanks, Matt! We’ll try to be careful with them,” Pidge replies before turning to Keith. “Okay, Keith, first I want to show you the Knockback jinx which basically just knocks your opponent over.” She pulls her wand out and aims it at the training dummy. “Flipendo!” A spark of blue light shoots out of her wand and makes contact with the dummy, knocking it up slightly into the air before it lands sideways on the ground.

Keith nods. “Okay, seems simple enough.” He points his wand at another training dummy and takes a deep breath. “Flipendo.” A blue spark leaves Keith’s wand and hits the dummy but doesn’t knock it over.

“Tighten your grip on your wand, Keith,” Pidge instructs. “You’re barely holding onto it.”

Keith grumbles but tries again, raising his wand up at the dummy. He tightens his grip on his wand. “Flipendo!” A larger blue spark shoots out of his wand and knocks the dummy up into the air causing it to fall to the ground on its side. “Wow, I really felt the pull of the spell.”

“Keith, you’ve got a lot of power inside you, but Pidge is right. Your grip isn’t tight enough,” Matt interjects from his desk.

“Huh…okay,” Keith agrees. “I think Professor Holt and Allura have both told me the same thing at one point. Anyway, what’s next?”

Lance steps forward and lifts up the two dummies from the ground. “I’m going to teach you that Full Body-Bind curse you saw me use on Marco during our first year. Do you remember that? Before we went looking for the Balmera’s Crystal?”

Keith furrows his eyebrows, thinking back to the time. He recalls them meeting outside the Gryffindor common room so Lance could get his invisibility cloak. Marco saw Keith, Hunk, and Pidge out there and asked what they were doing. Of course, none of them told him what they were doing, but when Marco saw Lance leave the common room with his cloak, he put two and two together. He was going to tell on them, but Lance used  _ Petrificus Totalus _ to immobilize him and they were able to head to the room on the third floor that held Fluffy.

“Oh, yeah! You used it so he wouldn’t tell on us! I always did wonder how you learned it back then,” Keith says.

“Carlos actually taught me a few days after we got my wand and stuff from Diagon Alley,” Lance shares. “How did you learn the disarming charm?”

“Shiro did without knowing,” Keith says. “I saw him use it several times on some other wizards and I just picked it up from him.”

Lance nods. “That’s cool. Let’s hope you can pick this up from me.” He winks then turns to one of the dummies. “Petrificus Totalus!” A white light shoots out of his wand and briefly makes the dummy glow before it tips over backward. “The key here is to focus on your target in order to get the full effect.”

“Okay, got it,” Keith says, raising his wand. Lance steps over to him and lowers his arm a bit.

“Not so high, buddy, you don’t need as high of a raise for this spell,” Lance corrects with a smile.

Keith ignores the warmness on his cheeks and nods, hoping Lance doesn’t notice the blush. He looks at the dummy and focuses once again. “Petrificus Totalus!” White light comes from Keith’s wand and strikes the dummy, causing it to glow slightly and tip over backward.

Lance claps. “Nice! Now just promise never to use it on me.” He chuckles then steps aside when Hunk walks over to Keith.

“Okay, I picked out the Impediment jinx for you, Keith,” Hunk says. “I think it’ll be useful in case something decides to chase you so it gives you a little extra time to get away. We don’t need the dummies for it, but we can just use Lance.”

“Wait, what?!” Lance demands.

“It only lasts for like a minute,” Hunk says. “Let’s go in the hallway.” They walk out there and Lance starts at one end of the corridor, clearly not happy about being the new test dummy - even though he’s far from a dummy. Perhaps a test smarty?

“Alright, it’s easy wand movements like this,” Hunk shares as he moves his wand in a straight line. “The word to go with it is Impedimenta. Lance! Let’s go!”

Lance rolls his eyes then starts running down the corridor. Keith raises his wand up and focuses on him. “Impedimenta!” A turquoise light shoots out of his wand, hitting Lance. Suddenly his movements slow down and it looks like he’s running in slow motion.

“Whoa! This feels weird!” Lance exclaims.

Keith laughs at him then looks at Hunk and Pidge. They share a smile with each other then look back at Keith. “I think you’re ready to take on this third task,” Pidge comments.

 

* * *

 

 

On the morning of the third task, Keith reads an article Luxia wrote about him, describing how he fainted in class and is possibly disturbed and dangerous. “How did she even get this information?” Keith wonders, handing the paper back to one of his classmates. “Did someone lie to her and tell her I fainted?”

Xander shrugs. “I dunno man, but I could  _ not _ focus in that class with that stupid bug lingering around your table and my table. I almost-”

Layla suddenly jumps up to her feet. “Oh my god! Xander! You’re a genius! I have to go tell Pidge something!” She runs off towards the Ravenclaw table. Keith and Xander both blink in confusion at her sudden outburst but ignore it, continuing to finish their food.

After breakfast, the families of the champions arrive at Hogwarts to watch the final task. Since Krolia can’t come for obvious reasons, Luis, Carlos, Lucy, and Hannah come to watch and support Keith. He and Lance spend the rest of the afternoon before the task talking with Lance’s family, catching up on things. Keith makes sure to tell Luis that his mom is doing fine and that she wishes she could see him. Luis still seems a bit wary of her, but overall Keith thinks he wants to see Krolia as well.

Once it starts to get darker out, Shiro and the other headmasters of the two other schools come and fetch the four champions and bring them to where the final task will be taking place. Keith sees the stands set up and hears the school talking loudly with each other. The music starts playing the Hogwarts song and the champions walk in a line through an entrance under the stands.

Keith emerges and his jaw drops when he sees the huge green hedge maze towering above him. It’s gotta be at least fifty feet tall. Eerie white fog covers the ground near the four entrances and blocks Keith’s view of seeing any further inside. He turns around and his eyes scan the crowd for his friends, smiling when he sees them holding a sign and cheering for him.

Shiro steps up to the podium and uses his wand to make his voice louder. “SILENCE!”

The band dies down and the crowd goes quiet, everyone sitting down to listen to what he has to say.

“Earlier today, Professor Rozinov placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze so only she knows the exact position,” Shiro says. “Now, since Mr. Dawson and-”

The crowd of Rolo fans stand up and cheer, waving their posters and their Hufflepuff attire. Keith sees Alfred Dawson lift Rolo’s arm into the air, smiling triumphantly.

“-Mr. Kogane are-”

The crowd of Keith fans now stand up and cheer for him, waving their posters and their Slytherin attire - except Lance, Hunk, and Pidge of course since they don’t have anything Slytherin. Keith smiles at them and waves.

“-tied for first, they will be the first to enter the maze,” Shiro finally finishes. “Followed by Mr. Hamamoto and Miss Moreau.”

The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students each cheer for their respective champion, interrupting Shiro yet again, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

“The first person to touch the cup will be the winner!” Shiro exclaims. He pauses to let the crowd cheer again. “I’ve instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter. If a contestant wishes to withdraw from the task at any point, he or she only needs to send up red sparks with their wand.” He turns to the champions. “Contestants, gather around.” He puts his arms around Rolo and Plaxum once everyone is around him. “In the maze, you won’t find any dragons or grindylows. Instead, you’ll face something even more challenging. People change in the maze. Find the cup if you can, but be very wary you could just lose yourself along the way.” He steps forward once again and turns to the crowd. “Champions! Prepare yourselves!”

Keith and the other three champions each walk up to their respective entrance. Zethrid stands by Keith while he waits to go in. keith sees Alfred hug Rolo, wishing him luck before walking back to his seat in the crowd.

“On the count of three!” Shiro exclaims. “One-”

_ BOOM _

The cannon sounds after the Warden sets it off. The band begins playing again as Shiro gives him an annoyed expression for setting it off early. Keith turns to Zethrid and she simply pats his shoulder before Keith walks into the maze. He looks back and sees the hedge close up behind him and the sounds of the crowd and band fade away into nothing.

Keith takes a deep breath and begins walking forward through the maze, everything eerily quiet. He turns his head around at every little noise he hears, thinking something is following him. Keith shakes his head of the paranoia and continues forward, wand at the ready in case something pops out at him. As he approaches a fork in the path, the air suddenly becomes colder and frost begins to form on the leaves.

_ Dementor _

Wait…they wouldn’t have Dementors here for this so it must be a boggart!

Keith readies his wand as the boggart disguised as a Dementor comes into view. He feels the effect of it draining his energy, but he pushes through, aiming his wand higher and yelling, “EXPECTO PATRONUM!”

A blast of white light erupts out of his wand, piercing through the Boggart/Dementor, sending it away for good. Keith lowers his wand, smiling triumphantly, silently thanking Lotor for teaching him the spell. He continues forward again, more confident than he was before. As he turns down another path, he hears Plaxum scream loudly and Antok yell a spell. Keith runs down towards the sounds, but skids to a stop when he comes face-to-face with one of Slav’s skrewts which has grown to ten feet long and is now way more aggressive. It has a black colored outer shell and a pale underbelly. It looks like it has two heads but Keith knows one of them is a stinger, telling Keith that it’s a male he’s dealing with. It’s a good thing too because he wouldn’t want his blood to be sucked out by a female.

Keith takes off running in the opposite direction as the skrewt begins chasing him. He wracks his brain for a spell he could use, panicking slightly, but then recalls the jinx Hunk decided to teach him: the Impediment Jinx. It’ll hopefully slow down the skrewt long enough for Keith to get away. The weak spot is on the belly of the skrewt since that’s where the shell stops. Keith turns back every couple seconds while running forward to see when it exposes its belly. Once it does, Keith aims his wand at it and yells, “Impedimenta!”

A turquoise colored light shoots out of Keith’s wand and hits the skrewt, causing it to run as if it’s in slow motion. Keith takes this chance to get as far away from it as possible, taking off down two other paths just to be safe. As he slows down to catch his breath, he notices Plaxum on the ground, stunned and some vines starting to pull her in. Keith rushes over to her and uses his wand to send up red sparks before continuing on his way.

He walks down another path and suddenly sees the glowing purple of the Triwizard cup, but as he goes to walk to it, Antok suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts attacking him. Keith’s eyes widen in fear, but he hears Rolo shout behind him. “DUCK!”

Keith dives down as Rolo aims his wand and shouts, “Stupefy!” A flash of red flies out of his wand, straight at Antok, but he deflects the spell, causing it to hit Keith in the leg instead.

Keith yells in pain when he feels the bone break. Antok pays no mind to him and continues after Rolo. He uses Expelliarmus to disarm Rolo. Keith sees this then raises his own wand, shouting, “Petrificus Totalus!” A white light shoots out of Keith’s wand and causes Antok’s limbs to stiffen and he collapses on the ground with a thud.

Rolo scrambles to pick up his wand and hurries over to Keith. “Come on, get up. I save your life, you save mine. Let’s win this together.” He extends his hand to help Keith up.

Keith accepts his help and Rolo pulls Keith to his feet. “Let’s send up the red sparks for Antok then get the cup.”

Rolo nods and uses his wand to send up the red sparks then helps Keith over to the cup. “On three? One, two, three!”

The two boys touch the cup and are suddenly transported to an eerie graveyard far away from Hogwarts. The cup was a portkey! Keith struggles to stand on his own as they see a hooded figure approaching them, carrying what looks like a baby.

Rolo steps forward and glares at them. “Who are you?!”

Suddenly Keith’s head sears with pain as a cold voice says, “Kill the spare.”

A female voice follows as the hooded figure raises her wand and says, “Avada kedavra!” Keith winces and turns to look at Rolo in horror. The hooded woman grabs Keith and forcefully ties him to the large tombstone of a man named Niko Dorra. As she ties him, Keith recognizes her as Migale.

“It’s you!” Keith exclaims.

Migale ignores him and begins boiling water in a giant cauldron, unwrapping the bundled object she was holding to reveal a scaly, red figure that has a flat, snake-like face - nothing like a baby. She then drops it into the cauldron.

Keith silently hopes it drowns.

“Dust from the father’s grave to renew the son,” Migale speaks as she uses her wand to summon some dust up from Niko Dorra’s grave. “Flesh of the servant.” Keith holds back a scream as she slices off her right hand, dropping it into the cauldron. “Finally, the blood of the enemy forcibly taken.”

She slowly walks up to Keith, holding the knife. Keith shakes his head no. “No! Get away from me! NO!” He shrieks as she seizes his hand, slicing his arm open. Keith howls in pain, feeling a tear roll down his cheek as she adds a couple drops of blood to the cauldron.

Migale stands back and looks at the cauldron. “The dark lord shall rise again.”

From the cauldron’s simmering depths, a tall, thin man rises. Keith’s stomach drops, knowing that Zarkon has risen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days?!?!!? You're welcome. Am I sorry for that cliffhanger? No - but then again I never am so :)
> 
> The new [cop chapter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12734550/chapters/34408724) is posted so go check it out!! I spend a lot of time on that AU so give it some well-deserved LOVE!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	15. He Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith just witnessed the Dark Lord rise again. He'll get some answers to some questions he's been asking his whole life, but everything comes with a price. If Keith wants to make it out of this graveyard alive, he'll have to use all the strength he can muster up to fight off Zarkon, but he won't be alone throughout this process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is pretty short, I thought I'd upload it.
> 
>  
> 
> [Beta Reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy~

Keith watches in horror, eyes wide with fear as Zarkon examines his new body. He sighs in relief then turns to Migale who is weeping and clutching her missing hand. “My wand, Migale,” he instructs.

Migale looks up at him and nods, handing it to him then bowing deeply.

“Hold out your arm,” Zarkon says.

She looks hopefully up at him. “Master, thank you m-”

Zarkon scoffs. “The other arm, Migale.”

Migale’s face falters slightly, but she does as told. Zarkon presses the tip of his wand on a red tattoo on Migale’s forearm. Keith recognizes the symbol from the sky during the Quidditch World Cup.

It’s the dark mark.

The sky changes and clouds begin to form, the same skull with the snake coming out of the mouth appears. Puffs of black smoke shoot through the sky and once they hit the ground, Galra Phantoms stand up tall with white masks covering their faces. Once Zarkon has a complete circle around him, he begins speaking. “Welcome everyone! It’s been thirty years and yet you stand before me as if it was only yesterday,” he says. “However, I am disappointed not one of you tried to find me.”

Zarkon begins walking around the circle, slashing angrily at the hooded figures, removing their masks. Once their mask is gone, they cower on the ground in pain. Keith doesn’t recognize most of them, but he spots Bethany’s father, Prorok Mathesi.

Zarkon then stops in front of the final the Galra Phantoms and slowly removes his mask to reveal Sendak Morrison.

“Not even you, Sendak,” Zarkon says, sadness in his voice.

“My lord,” Sendak pleads. “Had I detected any sign or even a whisper of where you were-”

“There were signs, my friend,” Zarkon interrupts, “and more than whispers.”

Sendak bows his head. “I assure you I never renounced the old ways. The face I’d been obliged to present each day since you disappeared, that was my true mask.”

“I returned,” Migale interjects.

Zarkon rolls his eyes. “Out of fear, not loyalty. Still, you have proved yourself useful these past few months, Migale.” He waves his wand and a new silver hand appears on Migale’s arm where she cut off her real one.

“Thank you, master!” Migale exclaims.

Zarkon turns around and slowly approaches Rolo’s limp body. He kneels down and looks closer at it. “Oh, such a handsome boy,” he comments.”

Keith grits his teeth. “Don’t touch him!” He struggles against the restraints, wincing at the shooting pain in his broken leg.

Zarkon turns around at the sound of his voice. “Keith! I nearly forgot you were still here, standing on the bones of my father, a muggle. He left my witch mother long before I was born, leaving me in an orphanage when my mother died giving birth to me. I would introduce you but you’re almost as famous as me these days.” He scowls at Keith. “I tried to kill you but failed because when your father gave his life for you, I could not touch you. Then when I went to kill the McClain boy, his mother did the same and my powers were stripped from me! I was forced to flee to a forest where I inhabited the bodies of snakes to stay alive.

“Four years ago, the foolish Haxus wandered across my path and allowed me to inhabit his body in order to come to Hogwarts to pursue the Balmera’s Crystal which would’ve granted me immortality, but I was thwarted by you and Lance. I was alone and weak again when my servant Migale returned to me and brought Bertha Jorkins who told me about a faithful Galra Phantom willing to help me. I killed her so she wouldn’t tell anyone else of this.

“Finally, with Migale’s help, I used Bertha’s information to find this servant to ultimately bring you here today to ensure my rebirth!” Zarkon finishes. He turns to the Galra Phantoms. “Soon I will call Beta Traz’s Dementors, my natural allies, into my confidence as well as the prisoners inside. Though, many of you are missing…dead, imprisoned, or fled out of fear. One of the missing ones, my most faithful servant, is at Hogwarts right now and through his efforts, Keith Kogane has been brought here tonight!”

Zarkon walks up to Keith. “That old magic won’t help you here. I can touch you now!” He raises his hand and presses his finger against Keith’s forehead, causing Keith to scream in pain. Zarkon laughs and pulls his finger away. “Isn’t it amazing what a few drops of your blood will do? Tell me, Keith, would you like to know why I picked you over Lance?”

Keith glares at him, refusing to speak.

“It’s because your blood is far more potent than Lance’s. He’s a Pureblood, but since I am a Halfblood, I needed yours since you’re a Halfblood as well,” Zarkon reveals. He raises his wand and points it at Keith. “Crucio!”

Keith screams in pain as Zarkon uses the Cruciatus Curse on him. He feels every muscle in his body contract and pull, making everything feel like it’s on fire. His head pounds, unable to think about anything except wanting the pain to stop.

Then, the pain suddenly ends and Zarkon lowers his wand. “Migale, untie him and give him his wand.” He steps back, allowing Migale to walk up to him.

Keith feels his broken leg crumple underneath him as he stands up, wand in hand. He looks at Zarkon, waiting for him to end everything right now.

Zarkon smirks. “You’ve been taught how to duel, yes? Let’s duel.”

Keith wracks his brain for dueling spells but only thinks of Expelliarmus and Stupefy which disarms and stuns the opponent. Before he can decide which one would be best to use, Zarkon puts him under the Cruciatus Curse again, hurting him terribly.

A few seconds pass and Zarkon stops. “Would you like me to do that again?”

Keith refuses to appease him by answering no so he simply just glares at Zarkon.

“Imperio!” Zarkon exclaims, wand pointed at Keith. “Say no!”

Since Keith has learned to fight this curse, he uses all his willpower to say nothing.

This infuriates Zarkon, causing him to send the Cruciatus Curse at Keith again, but this time Keith dives behind a gravestone to dodge it. He catches his breath and decides to use Expelliarmus on Zarkon. Keith then stands up tall and decides to die fighting like his father and Rolo did, no longer afraid of what Zarkon has to offer. Both of them raise their wands at each other.

“Avada Kedavra!”

“Expelliarmus!”

Zarkon and Keith yell their spells at the same time and the blast from both wands meet in the middle, lifting them into a golden dome-shaped web of light. Keith struggles to keep his wave of red magic fighting against Zarkon’s green magic. As he feels himself get weaker, he hears the beautiful sound of Phoenix song whispering to him not to break the connection. Keith’s eyes widen as he watches a bead of light travel across the connection to Zarkon’s wand. He focuses on the bead, forcing it to touch the tip of Zarkon’s wand, away from his.

When the bead makes contact, a shadow of a hand blossoms out of the tip of the wand, followed by a shade of Rolo, an old muggle, Bertha Jorkins, Rosa McClain, and finally Keith’s father, Seth Kogane. They crowd around him, each telling him to hold on.

Seth floats close to Keith, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Keith, once you let go, we’ll linger long enough to give you time to touch the portkey and return to Hogwarts.”

“Keith, please take my body back to my parents,” Rolo requests.

Keith nods then looks back at Seth. “Mom’s okay. I thought you should know.”

Seth smiles and nods. “Thank you. Tell her I love her and will always love her.”

“Keith, tell my son I’m so proud of him,” Rosa says, “and that I don’t regret saving him.”

“Okay,” Keith manages, feeling himself holding back tears.

“Now let go, Keith. You’ve done great, sweetie,” Rosa instructs.

Keith pulls his wand away from the connection, causing the light dome and Phoenix song to disappear. The shadows of the victims remain and close in on Zarkon while Keith runs to grab Rolo, despite his leg feeling like it’s about to fall off. Just as Zarkon is approaching him, ready to strike, Keith points his wand at the cup and shouts, “Accio cup!”

He grips Rolo’s body and feels himself spinning away and, in the distance, he can hear Zarkon’s cry of fury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on posting the next chapter either on the day season 6 is released or a few days after - I'm not sure. Look for the final chapter next week sometime.
> 
> News: Book 5, Chapter 1 is written! The artist is planning out the cover and the first couple pictures for the chapter so everything should be back on track. I don't know when I'll be able to post it, but it'll definitely be before the end of June.
> 
> Cop AU Update: I've begun planning out the next chapter after that douchey cliffhanger (you're welcome) if you haven't checked it out, you can [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12734550/chapters/34408724). Chapter 6 of this includes a lot of backstory on Keith back when he was a regular police officer in New York - it's gonna be great!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	16. All is Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Rolo's murder, Keith and Lance are taken back to the castle by Zethrid. They learn the truth of why Keith was entered into the tournament and some other things they never thought they'd need to know.
> 
> Krolia finally reunites with an old friend and make amends with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short summary - I didn't want to spoil anything!
> 
>  
> 
> [Beta Reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy~

Keith falls into the grass at Hogwarts, the sounds of the crowd and band playing now that they see he’s back. He releases Rolo’s body and falls back onto the ground, tears running down his cheeks because of his leg and because of Rolo. Once everyone sees that something’s wrong, the band stops playing and everyone begins shouting that Rolo is dead.

Suddenly Shiro’s and Lance’s heads appear above Keith. Lance grabs Keith’s arm and helps him up, noticing his leg is broken. Before Shiro can walk away, Keith grabs his robe and whispers to him, “He’s back, Shiro. I-I saw him…he killed-I couldn’t leave him there.”

Shiro nods. “I understand. You two stay put while I talk to the Dawsons.”

As he walks away, Keith and Lance are grabbed by a pair of hands and dragged towards the castle. Soon, Keith recognizes the person as Zethrid. She sets the two boys in her office, gently lifting Keith’s leg up onto another chair. “Keith, what happened?”

“Zarkon’s back!” Keith blurts out, wincing at his leg. Lance takes his hand and holds it tightly.

“What was it like to stand in his presence?” Zethrid wonders.

“It was like I fell into one of my nightmares,” Keith answers. “Professor-”

Suddenly Zethrid starts shaking and struggling for air. She reaches for her bottle, but it’s empty. Zethrid then rushes to a chest with other bottles, struggling to find one. “Were there others? In the graveyard, were there others?”

Keith looks at Lance then back at Zethrid. “I-I don’t think I said anything about a graveyard, Professor.”

Lance grabs his wand out of his pocket and gets it ready in case anything bad happens. Keith silently thanks him for being in here with him.

“Marvellous creatures dragons, aren’t they? Do you think that dimwit would’ve led you into the woods if I hadn’t suggested it? Do you think that Rolo Dawson would’ve told you to hold the egg under the water if I hadn’t told him first myself?” Zethrid asks, turning to them. “Or what about Hunk? How do you think he got his hands on gillyweed?”

Keith’s jaw drops and he shakes his head. Lance glares at Zethrid. “It was you from the beginning! You put Keith’s name in the Chalice of Quintessence!”

“And you bewitched Antok,” Keith adds.

“You won because I made it so, Kogane. You ended up in the graveyard because it was meant to be,” Zethrid says. “The deed is done and the blood that runs through your veins runs within the dark lord. Imagine how he will reward me when he learns that I have silenced the great Keith Kogane and now Lance McClain. Two for one deal! I-”

Lance raises his wand, but a flash of magic hits Zethrid, knocking her into the wall. Shiro, Allura, and Thace come rushing in, Allura with her wand pointed at Zethrid. Shiro takes Zethrid by the neck. “Thace!” Shiro exclaims.

Thace steps forward and drops two drops of veritaserum into Zethrid’s mouth causing her to wiggle demonically. Shiro keeps her pinned against the wall. “Do you know who I am?” he asks.

“Takashi Shirogane,” Zethrid replies raspily.

“Who did I succeed as Headmaster?” Shiro asks.

“Alfor Quinn.”

“Are you Zethrid Rozinov?”

Zethrid struggles a bit but eventually answers, “No…”

“Is she in this room? Is she in this room?!” Shiro demands.

Zethrid nods at the chest near Keith and Lance. Thace hurries over there and opens it up to reveal a series of smaller chests and when the final chest opens, a pit can be seen below holding a woman - the real Zethrid Rozinov. “Shiro, she’s here,” Thace says.

Shiro motions for Allura to take over holding the fake Zethrid against the wall so Shiro can look inside. “Zethrid, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, Takashi,” Zethrid says remorsefully.

“If that’s Zethrid then who’s-” Lance starts when Thace holds up one of the fake Zethrid’s bottles.

“Polyjuice Potion,” Thace says.

“Well, now we know who’s been stealing it from your store, Thace,” Shiro says then turns back to the pit. “We’ll get you up in a minute!”

Zethrid groans from inside the pit as everyone turns their attention back to the imposter who Allura has tied to a chair. The fake Zethrid begins to twitch about restlessly, making strange noises. Keith recognizes this from when he transformed back into himself after becoming one of Damien’s friends.

Allura rips off the fake eyepiece which falls to the floor. Now in the chair, everyone sees Throk Rezkir Junior. Shiro turns to Thace and Allura. “Thace, summon Chuchule from the kitchens. Allura, tell the large black cat to wait in my office.”

Both professors leave to do as told and Shiro looks back at Throk Junior. “Speak. How did you escape Beta Traz?” Shiro asks.

“I persuaded my dying mother to switch bodies with me so, with Polyjuice Potion, we did. My mother appeared to be me so when she died, she was buried under my name and I was able to live under an invisibility cloak under the watch of Chuchule,” Throk Junior shares as Chuchule runs.

“Master Throk!” she exclaims, hugging him.

Keith and Lance look in disgust at the house mouse-elf but don’t say anything.

“No one knew I was alive, except for Bertha Jorkins who entered my house on business and figured out what was going on,” Throk Junior explains. “My father modified her memory but Zarkon broke the charm when he encountered her in Albania. At the Quidditch World Cup, I was allowed to attend under my invisibility cloak. I saw a wand sticking out of a boy in front of me-” He winks at Keith, “-and I took it. When the Galra Phantoms who escaped Beta Traz were levitating muggles, I got angry and cast the Dark Mark into the sky to remind them of who they betrayed. After my dad fired Chuchule, Zarkon came to my house one night and told me what happened to Bertha Jorkins. He told me to disguise myself as Zethrid and go to Hogwarts to rig the tournament.

“I kidnapped her the morning the Hogwarts term began and had been there ever since, keeping the real Zethrid alive to use her hairs for the Polyjuice Potion and to learn her ways and mannerisms. Meanwhile, Migale and Zarkon moved into my house where they kept my father under the Imperius Curse, instructing him to go about business as usual, but somehow he escaped and ran to Hogwarts to find you, Shiro. I saw him in the forest on the Paladin’s Map Keith lent me so I went out to dispose of him after Keith left Antok out there with my father. I stunned Antok, killed my father, transfigured him into a bone, and buried him. I hurried over to help when Shiro and Keith were near the forest wondering what happened,” Throk Junior finishes with a smile on his face. “Now my master has returned and I will be honored beyond all dreams.”

Shiro gives Throk Junior a disgusted look then turns to Thace. “When Allura returns, send word to Mitch about this and have Zethrid sent to the hospital wing,” he instructs.

Thace nods and watches as Shiro takes Lance and Keith out of Zethrid’s office, making their way towards Shiro’s. Once inside, Keith sits down on a chair, propping his leg up. Black flies over and perches herself on Keith’s knee. Out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he sees a large black cat emerge from the shadows before it shifts into Krolia. Keith smiles widely when he sees her. “Mom!” he exclaims.

Krolia smiles and kneels down to hug her son. “I’m so thankful that you’re alive. I love you so much, Keith.”

Keith hugs her tightly. “I love you too.”

They embrace for a few more seconds then Krolia goes and hugs Lance, striking up a conversation with him while Shiro pulls up a chair across from Keith. “Keith, tell us what happened,” Shiro says.

Krolia and Lance stop talking when Shiro says this. Keith really doesn’t want to think about what happened but tells them everything while the memories are still fresh. He starts with what he encountered in the maze, the Boggart, Plaxum, bewitched Antok, how his leg broke, and touching the cup with Rolo. In the graveyard, Keith tells them about Migale and how Rolo didn’t stand a chance against the Killing Curse. After telling them how Migale tied him up and procured the ingredients to bring Zarkon back, he explains what Galra Phantoms he saw and then how Zarkon put the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses on him. Lastly, he tells them about when Zarkon and Keith both cast spells, they connected with each other and Keith saw the ghosts of the dead - Rosa, Rolo, Seth, Bertha, and a Muggle man.

Shiro waits for Keith to finish before speaking. “Priori Incantatem,” he says. “That’s what the connection of the wants is called.”

“Neither of our spells did anything, why?” Keith wonders.

“The wands weren’t able to battle properly because they were made from identical feathers from the same Phoenix,” Shiro explains. “I believe they came from Black.”

Keith looks at the Phoenix who is now crying on Keith’s broken leg, healing it. “When I got my wand from Ollivander, he told me there was a third wand as well.” He turns to Lance. “Lance has it.”

“It’s very rare, but it happens,” Shiro says. “Keith, the reason why you saw those dead people is that once the wands connected, yours forced Zarkon’s to regurgitate its spells in the reverse order in which they were performed. Did they tell you anything?”

“Well, Rolo asked me to bring his body back,” Keith shares. He looks at his mom. “Dad told me to tell you that he loves you and will always love you.”

Krolia bites her lip and nods, looking away. Lance kneels down next to Keith, taking his hand. “Did my mom say anything to you?”

Keith nods. “She told me to tell you that she’s proud of you and that she doesn’t regret saving you.”

“I-okay,” Lance voice falters and tears start streaming down his cheeks. He stands up and Krolia immediately pulls him into a tight hug.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” she reassures him, rubbing his back as he cries into her shoulder.

They stay like that for a few more minutes while Black finishes healing Keith’s leg. When she’s finished, Black flies back over to her perch. Shiro stands up, clearing his throat. “Well, Keith, it was very brave of you to talk about all this. I know it couldn’t have been easy. I think a night in the hospital wing would be best. I’m sure Colleen would want to make sure that cut doesn’t get infected.” He gestures to where Migale used the knife on Keith.

Krolia releases Lance and ruffles his hair. “I still can’t believe you’re already this tall! Rosa was  _ tiny _ !”

Lance chuckles. “My dad is very tall.”

“He is!” Krolia exclaims. “Wait, he’s here, isn’t he?” She turns to Shiro. “Will I get to see him?”

“I’m sure he’s already waiting in there for Keith to come,” Shiro says. “Would you make sure Keith gets there? I have to take Lance back to his dorm.”

“What?! I wanna stay with Keith!” Lance complains.

“Lance, don’t argue with me on this,” Shiro scolds. “Let’s go.” He ushers the pouting Lance out the door as Krolia shifts back into a puma.

Keith tilts his head at her. “I’m oddly tempted to pet you right now.”

Krolia growls at him, warning him not to then walks over to the door to wait for Keith to open it up. Keith waves to Black who nods at him in response then leaves to the hospital wing with Krolia.

Once they arrive, they find Luis waiting in there, pacing. He notices Keith and hurries over but stops in his tracks when he sees the puma behind him. Luis gasps as Krolia shifts back into her human form. “It-it’s you,” he stammers.

Krolia takes a step forward to go and hug him but decides against it. Keith tilts his head at his mother, silently wondering why she isn’t going to hug him, but Luis sees this hesitation and walks up to her and hugs her himself. Keith hears his mother gasp slightly before embracing her close friend. “Y-you’ve forgiven me?” she wonders.

“I was angry at first, yes, but your son and my son told me everything. It was Migale who betrayed us, not you,” Luis says. “I should’ve known you would never let anything happen to Seth unless something was truly wrong. I was just blinded by anger because the love of my life was murdered too.”

Krolia pulls away and looks at him. “Thank you.”

They turn around when Shiro walks in. “Yes, Keith is right this way, Colleen.”

Krolia quickly shifts back into the cat, going to hide underneath one of the beds. Keith walks over to the bed and climbs on top of it while Colleen walks in with Shiro. Luckily she didn’t see Krolia shift otherwise that would be bad.

Colleen grabs a few things from one of the cabinets before walking over to Keith. She tends to the various cuts and bruises on Keith before handing him a small vial of liquid. “This is a potion that will give you a dreamless sleep. Drink half of it and you should be good to go,” she instructs with a smile before walking away to tidy up.

Luis says goodbye to Keith and when Colleen isn’t looking, he kneels down and says goodbye to Krolia before leaving. Keith drinks some of the potion then slowly drifts off, feeling relaxed for the first time in forever.

Later in the night, Keith wakes up because of an argument between Allura and Iverson. “How could you possibly allow a Dementor to accompany you to see Throk and administer the kiss?” Allura demands. “Now he will not be able to testify for what he did.”

“He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has not risen again!” Iverson exclaims as Shiro, Luis, and Thace walk in. “Throk Junior is a lunatic and Keith simply had hallucinations of seeing You-Know-Who.”

“Mitch, your stubbornness will be your downfall. You must take the necessary precautions against Zarkon’s return. I advise you remove Beta Traz from the Dementors’ control since they are his natural allies and to contact the giants because they could be of great service against Zarkon unless he gets to them first,” Shiro instructs.

Iverson shakes his head no. “None of that will be necessary since it isn’t true!”

“You are blind by fear to what is going on,” Shiro says, crossing his arms. “You are a coward, Mitch Iverson, and if you refuse to ally with me in the fight against Zarkon, we must part ways.”

Thace rolls up his sleeve to show him his own Dark Mark. “Sir, it burned the night Keith returned from the graveyard he said he was at. That signaled that Zarkon is indeed back.”

Iverson simply shakes his head no, refusing to believe. “It’s not true!” He dumps Keith’s Triwizard winnings onto his hospital bed then leaves the room in a huff.

“Wow, how did that man become the Minister again?” Luis wonders.

“I ask myself that each day, Luis,” Shiro comments. “Now, I need you to contact your daughter, Isabella, and tell her what has happened. Try to get as many people on our side as possible, alright?”

Luis nods and heads off to do so. Once he’s gone, Shiro turns back to Keith and peers under the bed. “Krolia, you may come out now,” he says.

The black cat emerges from under the bed and Krolia shifts back into her human form. She and Thace exchange glares with each other, clearly still on edge.

“No, I will have none of that! Honestly, it’s been how many years? We’re on the same side here so you two need to make up,” Shiro says, crossing his arms.

Both of them grumble, but shake hands with each other, agreeing to be civil. Allura smiles at them both. “I never thought I would see the day where Krolia Kogane and Thace Slater become friends.”

“I wouldn’t call this a friendship,” Krolia responds.

“Anyway,” Shiro interjects. “Krolia, I need you to round up some old friends - including Lotor, alright? Thace, you know what you have to do.”

Thace nods and immediately leaves. Krolia looks at Allura and smirks slightly. “Shall I tell Lotor you said hello?”

Allura’s cheeks flush up and she looks away. “I do not appreciate being patronized like this, Krolia.”

“I don’t hear a no!” Krolia exclaims.

“Ugh! Fine!” Allura exclaims, storming out.

Shiro rolls his eyes and waits by the door for Krolia. Keith looks up at his mom. “When will I see you again?” Keith asks.

Krolia kneels down next to his bed. “Soon, I hope. In the meantime, you will continue to stay with-”

“Actually, I forgot to tell you. I got you permission to stay at your old home at Grimmauld Place and I want Keith to stay there with you. I’ll drop him off once the year finishes up,” Shiro shares.

Krolia smiles widely. “Thank you, Shiro.” She turns and kisses Keith on the forehead. “I guess I’ll be seeing you very soon.” She shifts back into the cat and follows Shiro out.

Keith, feeling happier than he has in a while, takes the rest of the potion and immediately drifts into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I watched S6 and as a Keith stan I'm pretty happy, but as a Lance stan I'm pissed as hell. I won't go into specifics in case people haven't seen it yet, but if you wanna complain about it with me, send me an ask on tumblr.
> 
> I've been hinting at Allura and Lotor in this AU because I picked up on their chemistry in season 5, but I can't believe they ruined Lotor like that. I don't really care that the ship is dead - it's still alive in this AU. It's fine they were gonna make him evil the entire time, but I hate how they played it out. Again, won't go into specifics so that's all I have to say on the matter.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)


	17. Another Year Finished

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Keith's fourth year at Hogwarts draws to a close, the school mourns the loss of Rolo before boarding the Hogwarts express and heading home. Keith and his friends finally learn what Sophia and Reyna had been up to all year: getting revenge for Carlos and Ryland. Since Vince Offer screwed the boys over, Keith decides to give them his Triwizard Cup winnings.
> 
> The thing he's most excited for is living with his mom over the summer. Sure, he'll miss Lance and his family, but now that Krolia is back, it's about time he spends time with her living like a real family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LAST CHAPTER! It's a bittersweet moment for me but I'm proud nonetheless.
> 
>  
> 
> [Beta Reader](http://midnight-birch.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy~

Several days later, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge visit Coran and they learn that he has made up with Madam Maxime and that he plans to spend the summer with her doing a mysterious task for Shiro. Keith and his friends press him, trying to get any information about it from him, but he refuses to share anything. Before they say goodbye to him, he tells them this:  _ what will come, will come and that all anyone can do is rise to meet it. _

Keith personally has no idea what that means, but perhaps he will know later.

On the night before leaving Hogwarts, the Great Hall is decorated in black to mourn Rolo and Shiro has allowed everyone to sit where they please. Keith, Layla, Xander, and Pidge join Lance, Delia, and Paul at what would be the Gryffindor table while Hunk and Shay stay with the other Hufflepuffs since they are the ones in the most mourning.

Shiro approaches the podium and everyone quiets down to hear him speak. “It deeply saddens me that we must part ways like this, mourning the loss of a beloved, exceptional student. Rolo Dawson was hard-working, an astounding Quidditch player, and, most of all, a great, fierce friend. Even though the Ministry doesn’t want me to tell you this, but I believe that you all deserve to know exactly how he died. Rolo Dawson was murdered by Narti Ames, the servant to Lord Zarkon.” Everyone erupts in murmurs and whispers, but stop when Shiro continues speaking. “Yes, she is not dead. Narti Ames is the real person responsible for the deaths of those wizards long ago who Krolia Madelina was wrongly accused of. I know this is a lot to take in at once, but the bonds we all made this year will be more important than ever to get through this.

“You all should understand the Triwizard Tournament was to promote magical ties and understanding with one another. Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, Hogwarts - we all come from different places, speak in different tongues, but, deep down, we’re all the same. Remember this during your years to come and Rolo Dawson will not have died in vain at the hands of Zarkon. Use his death as an example of how dangerous conversions to dark magic can be. Now, let’s go forth and celebrate a boy who was kind, honest, brave, and true right ‘till the very end,” Shiro finishes.

The students begin clapping for Shiro’s closing speech. Keith will probably remember this one as one of his favorites. He finishes the final meal with his friends and then everyone begins making their way to the carriages to head to the Hogwarts Express. Keith says goodbye to Layla and Xander before heading off with Lance and Pidge. Hunk elected to stay with his Hufflepuff friends during the ride back but made sure to say goodbye before getting on the train.

Keith, Lance, and Pidge find an empty compartment and sit down. Pidge pulls out a jar and shows it to Lance and Keith. Inside, Keith sees a beetle scurrying around. “Pidge, why do you have a beetle?” Keith wonders.

“Okay, Delia, Layla, and I have been trying to figure out how Luxia had gotten all that specific information she wrote about. We were stumped until Layla shared that perhaps she was listening in on us and soon enough we caught her as this beetle,” Pidge shares. “She’s an unregistered animagus.”

Keith takes the jar from her and looks at it. “Lance, I think the buzzing during Divination that one day probably was Luxia!”

Lance nods. “Makes sense! I-”

He stops abruptly when Damien and Bethany appear at their compartment door and open it. “You two picked the losing side,” Bethany sneers. “Zarkon will triumph.”

Keith opens his mouth to tell them off, but a wave of magic hits them from the hallway, sending them running away screaming. Once gone, Sophia and Reyna pop their heads in and join them in the compartment. “Thanks for that,” Keith says.

“Don’t mention it!” Sophia replies with a smile. “We have something to tell you guys anyway.”

“Do you remember back at the Quidditch World Cup and how Carlos and Ryland made a bet with Vince Offer?” Reyna asks. “Well, turns out he paid them in leprechaun gold. We started blackmailing him and apparently, he’s in deep financial trouble with quite a few people and goblins at this point.”

They spend the rest of the train ride discussing what other shenanigans Sophia and Reyna got themselves into, most of them being pranks on the Warden. Once the train stops, everyone gets off and Keith spots Ryland and Carlos talking to each other by their families. He approaches them and hands them the bag of gold. “Here, use it for your joke shop,” Keith says.

Carlos takes it from Keith and opens it up, jaw dropping at the amount of gold. “Whoa! Thank you, Keith!” he exclaims, showing it to Ryland.

Keith smiles at them then hugs Lance and Pidge goodbye before leaving with Shiro. They don’t travel very far since Krolia’s childhood home is in London. They drive through muggle neighborhoods before stopping in front of an apartment-looking complex. Keith notes that there are only numbers 11 and 13, but as he goes to ask Shiro about it, the building begins to shift, revealing another column of windows and this place is labeled with the number 12. The bricks are a shade darker than the rest of the building.

“Whoa,” Keith says. “How-”

“It’s magically hidden from muggles,” Shiro explains. “That’s why it looks different. Come on, I’ll help you get your stuff out.”

They pull Keith’s trunk and Red’s crate out of Shiro’s car and bring it up to the door. Keith smiles at Shiro before putting his hand on the doorknob. He takes a deep breath before opening the door to a long hallway. At the end of it, he sees Krolia walk into view and smile at him.

“Welcome home, Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're over halfway done with this AU! Chapter 1 and 2 of Book 5 are written and I plan on posting chapter 1 this Friday! Although, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom comes out that day too so I might push posting it to Saturday but we'll see! Thank you, everyone, who has stuck this long on this pining ride for Keith and Lance. I promise the next book will actually be more interesting in that aspect, but that's all I'll say on it!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Author's Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my other series [here](http://archiveofourown.org/series/736509) and my Voltron Cop AU [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12734550/chapters/29038824)!


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